A one day event, organized by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, aims to turn unwanted guns into gardening tools.
Executive Director Geoffrey Bickford says on May 11, nine Maine police departments will be accepting unwanted firearms. These include departments in Brunswick, Cape Elizabeth, Gorham, Falmouth, Portland, Scarborough, South Portland, Wells and Yarmouth.
“That they may have laying around their house or purchased in the past and don't want, or handed down in a will or from a family member, and they just don't want them around the house anymore, they don't feel comfortable having them in the house,” he says.
Bickford says the firearms will be destroyed in accordance with ATF standards and then shipped to an organization in Colorado which turns them into gardening tools. The implements will be distributed free of charge to local community gardens here in Maine.
Depending on the number of guns received, Bickford says some of the gardening tools may be sold to benefit the Maine Gun Safety Coalition's free trigger lock program.
Bickford says people who want to turn in unwanted guns and can't bring them in themselves, should contact the coalition.
Unwanted ammunition may also be turned in May 11.
