Asheville event turns unwanted guns into garden tools, art

Asheville will turn unwanted firearms into garden tools and art on June 27, when RAWtools South brings its Guns to Gardens safe-disposal event to First Baptist Church at 5 Oak Street. Residents can bring unloaded firearms from 9:30 a.m. to noon, where the weapons will be dismantled and repurposed rather than routed through a law-enforcement process.

The event comes after Asheville City Council proclaimed June 2026 as National Gun Violence Awareness Month, a ceremonial move the city describes as a public-awareness measure rather than a regulatory action. That framing fits RAWtools South’s approach: the Asheville-based group says it is drawn together by a mission of “disarming hearts, forging peace, and cultivating justice,” and uses nonviolent gun disposal as a way to offer anonymous recycling instead of confrontation.

RAWtools South’s work does not stop at collection. The organization says staff members Scotty Utz and Stan Wilson work alongside volunteer blacksmiths and partners including Alex Krug, Dan Davis, Hagan Brooks and Hood Huggers International. The same shop sells repurposed gun-metal items such as gardening mattocks, weed workers, hooks and pendants, extending the disposal effort into a second life for the metal itself.

The day’s public ritual continues at 5 p.m. with a Vigil of Healing at Trinity United Methodist Church, 587 Haywood Road, in West Asheville. That pairing of a practical drop-off site and a candlelight gathering gives the event a dual purpose: remove firearms from circulation and create space for remembrance, reflection and community contact.

For Buncombe County, the appeal is not only visual. Turning guns into tools for gardens and art gives residents a concrete way to act on violence prevention while keeping the process voluntary and local. In a city where the debate over gun violence has often centered on punishment after harm, RAWtools South is offering a quieter intervention, one that treats disposal, repair and public grieving as part of the same civic response.