Swords To Plowshares Vermont

Transforming Guns To Garden Tools

We are a Windham County based, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. We offer education, public awareness, and opportunities for people to responsibly and safely dispose of unwanted firearms for transformation into garden tools. We also offer information about safe gun storage and ways to reduce gun violence.

Gallery Walk 2026 season is over

We will look forward to seeing you during Gallery Walk 2027 in Brattleboro on the first Fridays in the months of May – October, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.  We will be set up in the Harmony Lot on Elliot St.  There will be information about our organization, garden tools for sale made from unwanted guns, T-shirts for sale, and FREE gun locks.  More info about Gallery Walk in general at https://www.brattleboro.com/downtown/gallery-walk/

Dorrie is looking forward to seeing you at Gallery Walk 2027!

Watch this space for upcoming dates

Our last educational event and forge demonstration was held during the August 2026 Gallery Walk on the lawn in front of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, 10 Vernon Street. Speakers included Windham County Sheriff Mark Anderson, Fred Breunig, and Katie Allaway. Attendees had the opportunity to wield a hammer at the anvil—guided by our blacksmith, Will Alderfer—to make a heart out of a slice of gun barrel.

Putney School Students Transform Firearms Into Garden Tools

“Retired Episcopal Suffragan Bishop [of Connecticut] Jim Curry, ignites his propane forge in the courtyard of the Parish of the Epiphany… Slowly he heats the barrel of a dismantled rifle to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and then starts hammering the red-hot metal on his anvil. In minutes, a piece of once-deadly weaponry transforms into a humble weeding tool.” Read article at Christian Science Monitor 

forge

Give Today!

Thanks to your generous donations, we now have our own portable forge to use at community demonstrations of the transformation of guns into garden tools.

We continue to need and welcome your donations. The button below will give you further information on how to donate. Thank you for whatever you are able to give.

(left) A portable forge heating gun metal to be transformed into a garden tool. Participants learn about gun safety and prevention of gun violence.

Secure Your Firearms

Free Gun Safety Locks

In the United States, unintentional injury is the fourth leading cause of death among infants (i.e., children aged <1 year) and is the top cause of death among children and adolescents aged 1–17 years; firearms are a leading injury method. Unsecured firearms (e.g., unlocked and loaded) are associated with risk for unintentional childhood firearm injury death.

U.S. Centers For Disease Control And Protection