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Gun buyback event set for Saturday, repurposes weapons into tools
From left, students Nathan Alvarez, 17, Devin Quintana, 17, and Nathaniel Gefroh, 16, are pictured with an electric guitar and xylophone forged out of gun parts at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School in Albuquerque last year.
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New Mexico has the third-highest gun-related death rate in the nation, according to 2022 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, a local advocacy group, is looking to change that through a series of gun buyback events.
Partnering with the Albuquerque Police Department and other public safety organizations, NMPGV will host another gun buyback on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the APD University Substation, according to a news release.
Albuquerque Community Safety, Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers and the University of New Mexico Lobos are also helping host the event.
At the last buyback event in August, more than 200 guns were turned over to APD in exchange for a total of $20,000 in gift cards. Of those turned in, nearly half were assault and semi-automatic weaponry.
Participants can remain anonymous, according to the release, and will receive anywhere from $100 to $250 for each operational, unloaded gun they turn over. The funds come directly from NMPGV, which has funded 25 gun buybacks and purchased more than 3,000 firearms during their events.
Once guns are checked in, APD will check if any of the weapons were stolen, and if so, hold the guns in evidence until they can contact the rightful owners.
Checked-in guns are then disassembled on site and later crafted into garden tools, instruments and vases by local high school students as a part of the “Guns to Gardens” initiative.
“This project improves the safety of Albuquerque by removing unwanted guns from our community and provides an opportunity for youth to engage in creative expression and leadership on the issue of gun violence prevention by forging the dismantled guns into gardening tools,” said co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Miranda Viscoli.
Students at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School have turned firearm scrap metal into anything from spoons to xylophones. The deaths of two classmates in an off-campus shooting inspired the program in 2023.
Ever since, students have been dutifully crafting objects from gun parts to honor the brothers’ memory.
