Sections of a rifle barrel, right, sit next to blacksmithing tools on a table at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Chris Silkwood’s disabled semi-automatic rifle sits on a workbench in Colorado Springs, Colo., Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. Silkwood donated the firearm to RAWtools, a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit organization that makes guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (Chris Silkwood via AP) 
Fred Martin, a volunteer blacksmith for the nonprofit group RAWtools, hammers what was a rifle barrel into a garden tool at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Fred Martin, a volunteer blacksmith for the nonprofit group RAWtools, inspects a rifle barrel that was melted in a forge and transformed into a garden tool at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Fred Martin, a volunteer blacksmith for the nonprofit group RAWtools, shapes what was a rifle barrel into a garden tool at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Michael Emmert, a volunteer blacksmith for the nonprofit group RAWtools, puts a rifle barrel into a forge at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Sharletta Evans, right, whose 3-year-old son, Casson, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1995, helps Fred Martin, a volunteer blacksmith for the nonprofit group RAWtools, hammer a rifle barrel into a garden tool at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. The Colorado Springs-based group transforms guns into garden tools and draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
A portrait of 3-year-old Casson Xavier Evans, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Denver in 1995, sits on a pew at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. His mother, Sharletta Evans, spoke at the service and took part in a gun transformation program run by a Colorado-Springs-based nonprofit called RAWtools. The group, which melts guns in a forge and transforms them into garden tools, draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert) 
Sharletta Evans, whose 3-year-old, son Casson, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1995, poses for a portrait at a church in Denver, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. Evans participated in a program run by a Colorado-Springs-based nonprofit called RAWtools, which transforms guns into garden tools. The group draws inspiration from the Bible verse, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
DENVER | Aurorans can get cash for firearms at a buyback planned March 19, which sponsors hope will put more guns outside of the reach of young people and criminals.
“Families in our communities continue to have their lives changed because of gun violence,” Aurora City Councilmember Curtis Gardner said in a press release. “We need help from everyone — parents, pastors, community leaders and family — to change hearts. However, we’ve heard from the community, especially young people, (that) they want a place to safely and anonymously turn in their guns.”
Firearms will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of Empower Field at Mile High, near the Mile High Monument in Lot J.
According to the release, the buyback will be structured as a drive-thru, and all guns should be unloaded and stowed in the trunk or back seat of a vehicle. Gun cases and locks can also be donated, but ammunition will not be accepted. Donated locks will be distributed in future events.
Gardner joins Denver City Council member Amanda Sawyer and the Denver Broncos in sponsoring the first in a series of buybacks that will be managed by Colorado Springs-based nonprofit RAWtools.
In January, RAWtools ran a buyback at Aurora’s Mountain View United Church that netted 75 firearms. The nonprofit also hosts nonviolence workshops focusing on bystander intervention, de-escalation, restorative justice and more.
“The epidemic of violent crime in our neighborhoods is heartbreaking,” Sawyer said in the same release. “Our residents deserve to feel safe in their communities. Our kids deserve to feel safe in their schools. While it will not bring back those we have lost, every gun we can help take off the street represents a potential life, or lives, saved.
After the buyback, RAWtools will host an event that same day where community members will talk about how gun violence has impacted their lives and a gun will be smithed into a garden tool — a nod to the biblical Book of Isaiah, in which the prophet describes people rejecting violence by beating “their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
The buybacks were spurred by shootings at Hinkley High School and Nome Park that wounded several young people late last year. Gardner said in an announcement at the time that he wanted to “ensure our residents feel safe calling Aurora and Denver home.”
Will the Broncos players, staff, and ownership be turning in there guns?
ug…s/b “their guns”…