UMass Dartmouth students turn guns into gardening tools, jewelry

DARTMOUTH, Mass. (WLNE) — Dozens of students on University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s campus crafted jewelry and garden tools out of broken-down metals from guns taken off the streets.

Swords to Plowshares Northeast has been molding metals from firearms into useful tools for surrounding communities since 2017.

The organization partnered with the New Bedford Police Department, offering two dozen firearms they bought off city residents.

“The guns that we found that were turned in were legal firearms, none of them were stolen,” said New Bedford’s police chief Paul Oliveira. “They are potential firearms that could end up on our streets through breaking into a house or mishandling.”

Bishop Jim Curry led the Swords to Plowshare’s event on campus Wednesday.

He told ABC 6, “It’s a change from an instrument of potential tremendous harm to an instrument of nurture… Our sword happens to be a gun in our society and we are beating our guns into garden tools.”

Students and faith leaders felt this symbolized a small step towards peace and the end of gun violence in light of recent school shootings.

The organization hopes to run more on-campus events in conjunction with local police departments.

The tools will be given to community groups in need.