Guns to Gardens
Guns to Gardens is our grassroots gun buyback program that gets unwanted guns off the streets and out of homes before transforming them into gardening tools and art.
We launched this program in 2016 and have completed 13 gun buybacks. We have dismantled 1030 firearms to date. Over 38% have been semi-automatic and assault rifles. We partner with law enforcement to host gun buybacks throughout New Mexico. To date, we have held 13 gun buy backs throughout New Mexico. The guns are dismantled on site and given to Rawtools who transforms them into gardening tools and Brazilian artist Trago Rene Torres Da Silva transforms them in art.
You can purchase these beautiful tools on our Facebook Shop or here on our website. 100% of the cost of these tools goes towards our next gun buyback.
We have also collaborated with the Santa Fe Community College Art Department, where student artists create original pieces from the gun scraps.
“The land of enchantment has a gun problem. New Mexicans to prevent gun violence has a solution: buy them and make them into garden tools. Tiago Renê Torres Da Silva leaves details in every tool he forges. Details that have stories. Silva, a blacksmith by trade, takes disarmed guns and turns them into garden tools… ”
Each buyback event costs from $20,000 to $30,000. NMPGV raises tens of thousands of dollars before hosting an event. Gun owners can receive between $100 and $250 for their working firearm, depending on the type of gun. Buybacks are paid out in the form of gift cards for grocery stores, gas or Amazon. NMPGV has hosted events where as many as 146 guns were purchased and destroyed before passing the scrap metal onto our artisan partners.
The program targets unwanted, working guns. Through this program, we have learned that there are any number of reasons why an individual or family might want to remove a gun from their home. Changing circumstances – children in the home, a suicidal family member, substance abuse, or a loved one’s death leaving an unwanted firearm in a home – can convince many gun owners it’s time to let go of their firearm.
Under the buyback program, they can turn the gun over to law enforcement anonymously be compensated for it. This also provides assurance that the gun won’t end up in unsafe hands or be used for criminal activity.
Here is an example of one of our gun buyback reports: Las Cruces Gun Buy Back, March 2021 Summary Report.
If you are interested in having a gun buyback, please contact Miranda Viscoli at info@newmexicanstopreventgunviolence.org
“The gun debate would change in an instant if Americans witnessed the horrors that trauma surgeons confront every day.”
– Jason Fagone, HuffPost