Guns are notorious for killing, but a Buffalo organization is researching how they can help create life.
Gun violence prevention advocates in Buffalo watched in horror on a rainy Saturday afternoon as Mark Stradley walked into the gun parts.
Held at Home Under Our Feet at 1117 Ellicott St., the event focuses on preventing gun violence and is organized by Buffalo Mother Justice for Gun Sense in America, Home Under Our Feet and Buffalo Raw Materials.
"It's very therapeutic," she says. "Also good practice."
Stradley, a career counselor in the Buffalo Public Schools, felt uneasy when she saw some of her students or their families being victims of gun violence and wanted to do something about it. So he turned to Raw Tools, who turned the gun into a garden tool.
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He asked the citizens to directly participate in the fake crime in the protest. In that process, he pointed out that the parents who lost their children by gunfire went as far as calling their children's names.
Stradley posits the falsification process as a way to prevent gun violence and heal victims of gun violence.
Some of the recycled jars will be donated to the Sensory Garden on Ellicott Street.
Four or five garden tools can be created from one tool.
Raw Tools Buffalo gets its guns from donations from non-users, families and even local law enforcement officials. The group wanted to partner with the Buffalo Police Department in their efforts.
Zeneta Everhart, the mother of Topps shooter Zaire Goodman, and Erie County Legislator Howard Johnson attended and took the opportunity to finish the recycled gun parts.
"To me," Johnson said, "it helps restore our community and restore what we've lost."
Contact AJ Franklin at ajfranklin@buffnews.com.
