Guns to Gardens Kansas City

08/18/2026

Clergy and Lay Leaders, it's not too late! The deadline to register for the Atwood Institute gun violence prevention workshop has been extended until August 30.

📍 Kansas City, MO
📅 September 15–18, 2026

🔗 Register now:
https://bit.ly/AtwoodRegister26

🔗 Learn more here:
https://bit.ly/PPFAtwood26

08/17/2026

Support the work - and take home a piece of art! We have Guns to Gardens Kansas City artwork available for purchase, created from materials recovered from fi****ms processed at our disposal events. All of the artwork sold or auctioned supports the ongoing work of Guns to Gardens Kansas City, including future disposal events, tools, supplies, community education, and partnerships with congregations and organizations.

https://www.gunstogardenskc.org/artwork

08/15/2026

What a great night! Willi Carlisle was so gracious and put on an incredible show, filling the backyard with great music while helping us continue building community and working together for justice and peace.

We raffled off one of our newest pieces of art created from dismantled firearm parts, welcomed lots of new friends, and spent a beautiful evening together.

Thank you to Willi, everyone who helped make tonight possible, and everyone who came out to support https://www.gunstogardenskc.org/

08/06/2026

Join us on August 14 at 8pm for an intimate backyard concert featuring Willi Carlisle while supporting the work of Guns to Gardens Kansas City!

Bring your own camping chair or picnic blanket, settle in for an evening of incredible live music. Admission is a $10 donation, and you’ll also have the opportunity to enter a raffle for an original piece of art created from firearm parts that came from the most recent Guns to Gardens disposal event at Stilwell United Methodist Church

RSVP using the QR code on the flyer (or click this link: https://forms.gle/nmaJYgy5Y5nRo3deA). The private Midtown Kansas City location will be emailed to attendees on August 13. We hope to see you there!

05/23/2026

Remember: Those guns are not automatically destroyed just because police recovered them.

When Kansas City police recover guns during enforcement efforts like this, those fi****ms do not necessarily disappear from circulation. In Missouri, they are typically held as evidence while cases move through court. If the firearm belongs to an uninvolved lawful owner, it may be returned. If it is tied to a felony conviction, the court may order it confiscated, but Missouri law still allows those fi****ms to be sold or traded to licensed fi****ms dealers rather than destroyed.

Nearly 20 people are in custody and several guns are off the streets following a crackdown by metro agencies this weekend.

What we know >>> https://www.kctv5.com/2026/05/23/metro-agencies-make-nearly-20-arrests-recover-10-guns-during-memorial-day-weekend-crackdown/

📷: Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department

05/21/2026

The artistic creations on display here are made using the wooden stocks and smaller pieces of scrap material that are not well suited for forging into garden tools. Every piece here was created from fi****ms that were processed on May 2, 2026, at the disposal event held at Stilwell United Methodist Church

Some of these pieces will be shared with other organizations and congregations as examples of what can be created from unwanted, unusable, or unsafe fi****ms. Others will eventually be sold or auctioned as a fundraiser to support the ongoing work of Guns to Gardens Kansas City.

To learn more about Guns to Gardens Kansas City, receive email updates, view event photos, or eventually purchase one of these art pieces, please visit and then regularly check out: https://www.gunstogardenskc.org/

05/07/2026

“At our very first event to forge gun parts into a garden tool, a mother cried out as she lifted the hammer: This….. is….for…..my….boy... And then she collapsed in tears.

I kept that first garden tool. It reminds me that what we are doing with every gun that we turn into a garden tool with Guns to Gardens is not just symbolic. It is sacramental. It is holy. It is an invitation to participate in the holy work of God.

Every time we do it, we declare that all things can be made new. Just as metal that was designed to kill can be re-crafted into metal designed to cultivate life, so can our policies be transformed and so can our neighborhoods that are so plagued be turned toward life.

As Isaiah 2:4 tells us, change comes when the people rise up, when they are so tired of violence that they begin to take things into their own hands to begin to disarm and re-purpose the metal. The image we’re given in Isaiah is that change does not come from the top down. It comes from the bottom up.”

(Text From: Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence - by Shane Claiborne & Michael Martin, Brazos Press, 2019)

Photo: Pam Harrison Clark on May 2, 2026, at Stilwell United Methodist Church working the chop saw.

05/06/2026

Why would someone want to dispose of a ?


Many fi****ms sitting in homes are damaged, inherited, unused, or no longer safely functional. Guns to Gardens Kansas City offers a legal way to dispose of unsafe, unusable, or unwanted fi****ms before they become a risk to children, grandchildren, theft, accidents, or misuse.


For many people, fi****ms are connected to grief, trauma, military service, domestic violence, su***de, or community violence. Participating can be a meaningful step toward healing and ensuring those fi****ms are not recirculated or used to harm someone else.


Rather than sitting forgotten in a closet or returning to the marketplace, fi****ms are permanently dismantled and repurposed into garden tools and artwork - transforming objects associated with harm into symbols of life, growth, and peace.

05/06/2026

05/04/2026

A great report about the process with clear visuals from KMBC 9!

Let us know if you want to host a free, safe, and anonymous disposal event!

Volunteers first checked each weapon to make sure it was unloaded and safe.