The City of Oakland is taking the "swords into plowshares" concept literally.
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Oakland Police on Thursday announced an upcoming program called "Guns into Gardens" where the department will buy back guns and turn them into garden tools.
"It's an opportunity for us to take firearms that have been used in our community or possessed in our community and turn them into tools to help beautify our community, make our city better." Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said at a news conference.
"We really want to encourage people to bring forth firearms that they may have in their homes. Firearms, oftentimes, are taken in burglaries, in thefts," he said. "We want those firearms, we want to be able to melt those firearms down and do something positive with that metal."
The program is Oakland's latest effort to reduce gun violence in the city. The department hopes that financial compensation in exchange for potential ghost guns or privately owned firearms will help incentivize people to turn them in and will keep them off the street.
"As a mother who lost her son in 2013 to gun violence, this is personal to me." Oakland Councilmember Treva Reid said. "It's personal for us to find every tool that we can to increase our accountability to how we show up to protect and save lives in our community and get the proliferation of guns off of our streets."
Oakland Police are partnering with Colorado-based non-profit RAWTools, which recycles the material parts of firearms and converts them into tools. Mike Martin, founder and executive director of RAWTools, said that the company takes "something that harms our community" and turns that into something that brings "literal healing and life to our community through the food it can grow."
"People who have been affected by gun violence take part in making the garden tools, the art, the jewelry, the pieces that come from these weapons of war that are in our community," Martin said.
The buy back program will be held on June 11 at the At Thy Any Ministries church in Oakland.
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