Guns to Gardens / October 17, 2026 / 9 am to 12 noon
What is Guns to Gardens?
 
Guns to Gardens provides an opportunity for gun owners to bring unwanted firearms to be dismantled on site, and later turned into garden tools and other works of art.  On Saturday, October 17, the event takes place at the Community Church of Durham, from 9 am to 12 noon.
 
Here’s How This Works:
 
  Bring your unwanted, unloaded firearms in the rear of your vehicle (in the trunk or rear cargo area).  Your identity may remain anonymous.  No loaded firearms are allowed on the premises.
 
  A volunteer will guide you through the process as you arrive.  Please remain in your vehicle at all times.
 
  The gun(s) will be removed from your vehicle by a volunteer who will deliver them to a trained chop saw operator.
 
  Volunteers will safely dispose of your guns using ATF guidelines.  Scrap metal and wood from your firearms will go to artists to be transformed into gardening tools and other works of art.
 
  $25 gas gift cards will be offered to the first 30 participants.
A Project of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ!
…they shall beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
    neither shall they learn war any more…
 
Isaiah 2
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Toward a Safer New Hampshire:
 
Under state law, NH law enforcement is prohibited from destroying firearms which come into their possession and must either store the weapons, use them, or sell them back on the market.  Guns to Gardens provides an opportunity for Granite Staters to remove unwanted firearms from homes without putting them back on the market.  Instead, we turn them into something more useful–and less harmful to our community!
 
This is a step, an important step, toward a safer and more just community on the Seacoast, and across New Hampshire.  And we’re proud to work alongside our own New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ to make it happen this October.
 
Community Church of Durham,
United Church of Christ

17 Main Street,
Downtown Durham, NH
Saturday, October 17, 2026
9 am through 12 pm
17 Main Street, Durham, NH
 
To participate, interested community members should bring UNLOADED firearms in the rear of their vehicle, and once on site remain in the vehicle at all times.  Guns will be removed from the vehicle by trained volunteers and delivered to the chop operator, who will then disable the firearm.  Scrap metal from firearms may be donated–if you wish–and used by metal or wood artists to be transformed into garden tools and other works of art.  The identity of those relinquishing firearms can remain anonymous.
FOR THE PRESS:
 
Contact Don Smith (Durham Church Coordinator) at 603-868-1188
Contact the Rev. Dave Grishaw-Jones (Durham Church Pastor) at 603-868-1230 or DavidGJ@CCDurham.org