Jun. 11—CONCORD — The collection box at "Guns to Gardens" on Saturday in the parking lot behind Concord Wesley United Methodist Church held a trove of pieces for making garden tools or art: triggers, bolts, chambers, stocks and barrels — all bound for a foundry in Connecticut, where they will be smelted and potentially remade into almost anything but a firearm.

Nancy Brown of Hopkinton, a volunteer from GunSense NH, a project of the political action group Granite State Progress, and a coordinator of Guns to Gardens, has a heart pendant fabricated from a melted-down gun barrel.

It symbolized the group's mission: Destroy and repurpose unwanted firearms before more needless gun violence happens. For many Granite Staters, the shooting deaths of a mother and child in Franklin on June 5 was another triggering event, this one close to home.

"We're offering the service to the gun owner of disarming the gun. They donate the scrap metal and we take it to a forge and have it transformed to things like this necklace," said Brown. Her T-shirt slogan, "Imagine a future without gun violence" was a rallying cry for the volunteers and the participants, some who drove one to two hours to get here.

"You can't take it to law enforcement and ask them to destroy it," Brown said. "10 people showed up in the first hour and some had multiple guns they asked us to dismantle for them."

Police departments can use surrendered firearms in training, or sell them at auction, which rarely, if ever happens, according to gun rights advocates, but state statutes prohibit law enforcement agencies from destroying them.

"Guns to Gardens. Our sacred texts tell us to beat our swords into plowshares. That's what we're here to do today," said Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath, executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches, who helped organize the event sponsored jointly by GunSense NH, Kent Street Coalition of Concord and the NH Council of Churches.

"There's just too many guns in America, and there aren't enough safe ways to get rid of them," said Kurt DeVetter of Goffstown, who helped operate the metal chop saw used to sever the guns' retainers, the section where bullets are loaded, which renders them useless as firearms.

"Our police can't take them. If we sell them, we don't know where they'll end up." Cutting up a few dozen guns today isn't going to fix the nation's problem of gun violence, he said, "but it's one small, good, right step to making America safer."

Guns to Gardens, the first event of its kind in New Hampshire, is a nationwide effort started by New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

It enables voluntary anonymous and gun surrender, with weapons destroyed on site, so their owners know they cannot be reused or resold. Their components are eventually reborn as jewelry, sculptures and garden tools such as spades, hoes and mattocks.

Saturday's take in Concord netted mostly shotguns and rifles — many old, rusted or heirloom-worthy — plus several pistols and revolvers, including one Colt 45, a sprinkle of air rifles and BB guns, plus an AR-15 rifle.

A total of 31 firearms were turned in by 24 people in four hours. Cars came from as far as Tilton, Keene, Alton and Bedford.

Two retired law enforcement officers took the guns out of car trunks, set them on a table away from people, and inspected them to ensure they were not loaded.

"My public service didn't end when my career stopped," said Mel Robles, a retired detective and sergeant with the New Hampshire State Police.

"To the degree that I have skills that are transferable, I'm happy to use them. I've had victims of gun violence in my family and what I saw on the job has led me to believe less guns in circulation is better for public safety."

Shanon Goff, a retired lieutenant from the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department, spent 18 years in law enforcement. "You think this is a small state, a quiet state. It happens here, just to a different degree."

Jim Fowler of Concord drove up, eager to get rid of the long gun he'd had since age 12. "I don't use it. I don't need it. I'd rather dispose of it than give it away."

A man in the car behind him said he'd consulted a website for what to do with an unwanted firearm. "One said, 'Try the police. Try the gun shop. Or bury it.' I'm not burying it."

For Ralph, a retired nurse from Tilton, the event was a watershed moment. "I'm here to surrender a handgun that I've had locked in the house for 30 years. Given all the gun violence going on, especially with children, I decided I don't want a firearm in the house any more. I don't want to sell it. I don't want it to fall into the wrong hands, or a parent who doesn't secure it properly, or a bad actor who might use it to rob someone. I don't want it used in domestic violence or suicide."

Nationwide, gun violence has become the number one cause of death for young people up to age 19, according to a July 2022 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among 11 of the world's wealthiest countries, it ranks fifth.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a national research and policy group, 135 people in New Hampshire die by guns in an average year. Ninety percent are suicides and 7% are suicides. Nationwide, in comparison, 61% are suicides and 36% are homicides.

The rate of gun deaths in New Hampshire — the ninth-lowest among all states — rose 68% between 2009 to 2018, compared to an 18% rise nationwide.

"Generally, there's the sentiment, the fewer guns the better," said a Guns to Gardens volunteer from Concord, who directed incoming cars.

"The fact that there is no other way to get rid of guns" in New Hampshire without selling or giving them away made this a standout opportunity.

Dave Breault, a Guns to Gardens volunteer from Salem and a retired psychotherapist, said gun owners who no longer want them are highly motivated, including by escalating reports of deaths by gun violence.

"Some have long attachments to these guns but they want them out of their home and destroyed. They don't want them on the market."

"More Americans are realizing that firearms in the house don't make you more safe and may cause harm to family members and those around them," said Zandra Rice Hawkins, director of Gun Sense NH. "This is a pathway to safely dispose of them and turn them into something safe."

Down the street, before the entrance to 'Guns to Gardens,' a gun collector from southern New Hampshire sat at a table with a hand-lettered sign, "Cash 4 Unwanted Firearms." He hadn't attracted any sellers.

"This is not the right crowd," said the man, who declined to give his name. In comparison, he said he does well at firearms buy-back events where he can pay more than the prices offered.

"We are at a watershed moment in this country when it comes to preventing gun violence," Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath of the NH Council of Churches stated in a press release at the end of the day.

"It should be easier to get rid of unwanted guns, and when laws prevent that. We must do it ourselves. This event is a step toward creating a world with fewer guns, and less gun violence."

Carrington Heath expects faith-based groups around the state will hold similar events. Another Guns to Gardens firearm disposal will occur in Concord in 2024, also hosted by members of the NH Gun Violence Prevention Coalition.