Resources

Forging Peace: The Guns to Gardens Movement | The Current Podcast

The sound of a hammer striking hot metal echoes across a church parking lot as something remarkable unfolds–a deadly weapon transforms transforms into a tool for growing food. This is the Guns to Gardens movement, and in this powerful conversation with volunteer Dave Creel, we explore how unwanted firearms become symbols of peace and new life.

Dave walks us through the practical mechanics of these community events, where safety officers dismantle guns according to ATF guidelines before blacksmiths and woodworkers transform the components into garden trowels, spades, and works of art. The symbolism is profound—objects designed for destruction becoming instruments of cultivation. "From things that take life to things that cultivate life," as Dave beautifully puts it.

What makes this conversation particularly compelling are the personal stories. Dave shares how the Uvalde school shooting, coming just after his child's birth, propelled him into action. He reflects on his lifelong proximity to gun violence—from a middle school friend who nearly took his life with his father's gun to hearing a hundred rounds fired at his neighborhood park where his children play. These aren't isolated incidents; they reflect an American reality where firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens, and a surprisingly high number of us personally know someone who's been shot.

The Guns to Gardens movement offers more than symbolic transformation—it provides practical solutions for people who inherit unwanted firearms or no longer wish to keep them. One woman brought five loaded guns to an event after her husband's passing, having no idea how to safely dispose of them. The events create space for people to share their stories of trauma and find healing through creative transformation.

Though the project has faced pushback from those who view it as politically charged, Dave emphasizes that their mission transcends politics. Inspired by the biblical image of beating swords into plowshares, volunteers approach their work as a tangible expression of faith and nonviolence. They're motivated not by political agendas but by a vision of communities freed from the fear that drives our relationship with guns.

Beating Guns: A Hope For People Who Are Weary of Violence | Shane Claiborne & Michael Martin

Parkland. Las Vegas. Dallas. Orlando. San Bernardino. Paris. Charleston. Sutherland Springs. Newtown. These cities are now known for the people who were shot and killed in them. More Americans have died from guns in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in American history. With less than 5% of the world's population, the people of the US own nearly half the world's guns. America also has the most annual gun deaths--homicide, suicide, and accidental gun deaths--at 105 per day, or more than 38,000 per year. Some people say it's a heart problem. Others say it's a gun problem. The authors of Beating Guns believe it's both.

This book is for people who believe the world doesn't have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows, Beating Guns provides a provocative look at gun violence in America and offers a clarion call to change our hearts regarding one of the most significant moral issues of our time. Bestselling author, speaker, and activist Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin show why Christians should be concerned about gun violence and how they can be part of the solution. The authors transcend stale rhetoric and old debates about gun control to offer a creative and productive response. Full-color images show how guns are being turned into tools and musical instruments across the nation. Charts, tables, and facts convey the mind-boggling realities of gun violence in America, but as the authors make clear, there is a story behind every statistic. Beating Guns allows victims and perpetrators of gun violence to tell their own compelling stories, offering hope for change and helping us reimagine the world as one that turns from death to life, where swords become plows and guns are turned into garden tools.

Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way | Walter Wink

More than ever, Walter Wink believes, the Christian tradition of nonviolence is needed as an alternative to the dominant and death-dealing "powers" of our consumerist culture and fractured world. In this small book Wink offers a precis of his whole thinking about this issue, including the relation of Jesus and his message to politics and nonviolence, the history of nonviolent efforts, and how nonviolence can win the day when others don't hesitate to resort to violence or terror to achieve their aims.

The Violence Project: How To Stop A Mass Shooting Epidemic | Jillian Peterson & James Densley

This examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America is an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies.

Using data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, including first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion of violence.

Frustrated by policy conversations that never seemed to convert into meaningful action, special investigator and psychologist Jill Peterson and sociologist James Densley built The Violence Project, the first comprehensive database of mass shooters. Their goal was to establish the root causes of mass shootings and figure out how to stop them by examining hundreds of data points in the life histories of more than 170 mass shooters—from their childhood and adolescence to their mental health and motives.

They’ve also interviewed the living perpetrators of mass shootings and people who knew them, shooting survivors, victims’ families, first responders, and leading experts to gain a comprehensive firsthand understanding of the real stories behind them, rather than the sensationalized media narratives that too often prevail.

For the first time, instead of offering thoughts and prayers for the victims of these crimes, Peterson and Densley share their data-driven solutions for exactly what we must do—at the individual level, in our communities, and as a country—to put an end to these tragedies that have defined our modern era.