Episcopal ministry’s traveling ‘Disarmory’ events destroy guns in southeast Michigan

[Diocese of Michigan] Episcopalians with Disarmory Ministries have been running gun destruction events in southeast Michigan for six months, and they have their process down. But when a woman recently drove up with a loaded handgun in her purse and an agitated, confused husband in the passenger seat, they were in new territory.

While her car idled in the parking lot of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, the woman discreetly explained her husband suffers from Alzheimer’s. She thought he had gotten rid of his gun, only to discover it in a drawer, and he wasn’t happy that she had taken him to the church’s gun destruction event.

Event volunteers soon figured out a way to retrieve the gun, safely unload it and destroy it, while others engaged the husband with conversation and a tray of donuts. The handgun was one of 50 firearms, including a World War II-era M1 carbine, people turned over that day. At a similar event a week earlier, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Plymouth, collected and chopped up 61 guns.

Launched in April, the nonprofit Disarmory Ministries is the brainchild of the Rev. Chris Yaw of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield. Yaw and other faith leaders have been active alongside Michigan Bishop Bonnie A. Perry, who co-founded End Gun Violence Michigan, an organization at the forefront of convincing state legislators to pass common-sense gun safety laws.

Yaw started a gun buyback program at his church several years ago in response to some alarming statistics. Americans are estimated to own 400 million or more guns, with guns outnumbering people in the United States, and gun violence is the number one cause of death for children.

After The New York Times reported that some guns being turned over to police by organizations like St. David’s were finding their way back into circulation, Yaw looked into how St. David’s could incorporate gun destruction into its buyback program. Insurance limits made doing so as a church untenable, so Yaw launched Disarmory Ministries as a separate nonprofit organization.

Operating from a parking lot in suburban Detroit, Disarmory Ministries has regular hours when people can make an appointment to turn over their firearms. Sometimes, the group goes on the road to specific events at churches throughout southeast Michigan. They are also talking to groups in Ohio interested in how to set up their own gun buyback and destruction organizations.

Here’s how it works. People who bring in a gun remain in their car while the firearm is handed over to a trained worker. The gun owner stays nearby, legally retaining possession of the weapon while a worker saws it into pieces. Once the firearm has been rendered inoperable in accordance with specifications set by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it’s no longer considered a gun, and the pieces are given to other volunteers for use in artwork. Serial numbers are recorded and reported to local law enforcement per Michigan State Police recommendations.

In exchange, gun owners are offered gift cards ranging from $50 to $200 and are given the opportunity to buy art made from gun parts. Mike Otto, a retired infectious diseases doctor in Ann Arbor and a Disarmory Ministries board member, said half of the people who turn in guns don’t want anything in return.

“They tell us, ‘For the peace of mind for getting this out of my house, I don’t need a gift card,’” said Otto, who is also president of the group Physicians for the Prevention of Gun Violence.

The people come to the Disarmory Ministries events from all walks of life. Some are retired police officers who find themselves with extra guns from their years on the force. Or adult children have inherited a firearm from parents.

In one heartbreaking case earlier this year, a woman brought a new handgun in its original box with the receipt. The gun had been “bought on a Tuesday and used on a Thursday,” said Jessica Rienstra of Disarmory Ministries. The woman explained the gun was fired once by her brother — to kill himself.

Often, relatives cleaning out the house of a deceased family member discover guns they didn’t know the relative had. That was the case with Brenda Donaldson from nearby Chelsea, Michigan. She drove to the St. Aidan’s event with a 9 mm handgun, a .357-caliber revolver and a .38-caliber snub-nose she found while going through her brother’s house after he died.

Donaldson said local police didn’t want the guns, and she wasn’t interested in selling them to a gun dealer. “You never know who is going to buy the gun from them. I’d much rather know they are getting destroyed,” she said.

Disarmory Ministries, along with its predecessor, St. David’s Firearm Disposal Ministries, has now disposed of more than 1,000 unwanted firearms from metropolitan Detroit residents as of late October, according to Yaw.

Rienstra makes a point to say the group is not about denying people the right to own firearms. In fact, there are NRA members on the Disarmory Ministries board, which includes a gun shop owner and a retired police chief.

“We all have our own beliefs,” she said. “As an organization, we’re not about taking people’s guns. We’re about providing an option for people who don’t want them.”

The Rev. Tom Ferguson, rector at St. Aidan’s, sees a religious underpinning to the work. “It’s not about what Jesus said. It’s about what Jesus did. And this is what he would do,” said Ferguson.

Based on its success so far, Yaw believes Disarmory Ministries is providing an important, ongoing service to local communities.

“The research is clear — ready access to firearms plays a significant role in suicide, children’s safety and crime prevention, since a large proportion of gun crime is committed with stolen firearms,” he said. “Removing unwanted weapons from circulation is one of the many important factors we need to address to stem America’s epidemic of gun violence.”

Perry, a co-convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, added, “We know that there are countless stories of pain and sadness associated with firearms. Disarmory Ministries offers people a way to move on, free from the burden of an unwanted gun.”