On an idyllic Saturday morning in August, the sound of metal grinding broke the silence that surrounded the church steps in a quiet SE Portland neighborhood.
Bethany Rydmark had brought her handgun to be decommissioned, sawed into pieces to make it unusable, at the Portland Mennonite Church where trained volunteers help to make the right cuts. The church is part of a program called Guns to Garden Tools started by RAWtools, an organization in Colorado that forges metal from decommissioned guns into shovels and spades.
Rydmark’s family stood by her side as sparks flew off the metal saw cutting the gun into pieces, and her eyes filled with tears. Tears of relief, tears of joy punctuated by pangs of sadness and loss. This moment had been a long time coming but it still felt so sudden.
Rydmark had labored over this decision for months. The gun had been a gift from her husband’s grandfather, a token of love and kindness to welcome her into the family. The 7.65mm caliber pistol made in Hungary was more of a collector’s item than a usable weapon, nevertheless it sat in a locked safe for years.
“I get to make the choice about what to do with it,” Rydmark said. “I don’t want to have it as a weapon, and I also don’t want to send it off into the world to another owner. I don’t want to have my link in the chain go toward an unknown future.”
Although Rydmark grew up around guns in rural Oregon, her family went hunting and did target practice, the idea of owning a handgun in her home was something she couldn’t reconcile. Especially with gun violence on the rise in Rydmark’s neighborhood in NE Portland of Parkrose Heights that recorded 19 shootings in 2021.
Rydmark first heard of RAWtools several years ago. In 2012, founder Mike Martin started the organization that smiths decommissioned gun parts into garden tools or works of art. The idea is based on a verse from the Bible that says swords will be beaten into plows.
But it was the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in May that pushed Rydmark to make the call to RAWtools for her own handgun. As a mother of two, it hit close to home.
“Just the sadness and devastation that continues to come from the broken parts of our gun culture in this country weighs heavy on me,” Rydmark said. “I’m excited to think of participating in something that would change the picture, something that would grow a different environment. I would love to not hear gunshots out my window.”
Through the Disarming Network RAWtools features on its website, Rydmark became connected with the Portland Mennonite Church whose leaders have started helping Portlanders decommission guns since the start of this year.
“It seems like a really small drop in the ocean to cut just one gun apart,” said Ed Shirk, a leader at the Portland Mennonite Church and trained volunteer who helps to saw the guns. “But it was a statement that I really felt strongly about and one of our main tenets is to work at restoring peace to the city.”
So far four people have brought their guns to the church to be decommissioned, including Kelly Knox who reached out to the church to decommission an AR-15 rifle in July. Knox also wrestled with the idea for over a year.
“This gun in particular is a symbol for both sides of the argument on gun control,” Knox said. “I wanted to do something symbolic that can maybe lead to more people having nuanced thoughts about gun ownership.”
The symbolism of turning a weapon of war into a garden tool used for peace and restoring life appealed to Rydmark who works as a landscape architect. But her desire to see a change around gun ownership didn’t stop with her personal decision.
This year Rydmark collected signatures for Oregon Measure 114, which would require anyone buying a gun to apply for a permit first and prohibit the manufacture, purchase or possession of ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
“There are ways that we can shift the status quo that doesn’t completely disarm everybody, but can make a significant change in a way that matters in Oregon,” Rydmark said.
The measure will be brought to Oregon voters on the November ballot.
– MJ Johnson