DENVER — Practically three many years after her 3-year-old son was killed in a drive-by taking pictures that shattered the silence exterior a Denver duplex, Sharletta Evans was the one piercing the stillness as she eased a few of her ache by hammering the melted barrel of a rifle right into a backyard instrument.
The occasion held at a Denver church was a part of a program run by the Colorado Springs-based nonprofit RAWtools, which attracts inspiration from the Bible verse “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
“To see yet another gun off the road is so comforting. I really like the thought of one thing that might probably trigger hurt being changed into a backyard instrument that’s going to be one thing used for productiveness,” Evans mentioned whereas holding a photograph of her son Casson, who was killed simply earlier than Christmas in 1995.
RAWtools has disabled greater than 1,000 firearms throughout the nation since its inception in 2013, shortly after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary College in Connecticut. Most of the ensuing backyard instruments are donated to collaborating church buildings or offered on the RAWtools web site.
The group’s govt director, Mike Martin, mentioned 1,000 disabled firearms “feels small” contemplating the almost 400 million weapons within the U.S., nevertheless it’s a begin.
“It’s slightly bit by slightly bit. We have an effect on change by making change in our personal lives and compelling others to do the identical,” he mentioned, noting that RAWtools additionally companions with teams that concentrate on rehabilitating offenders and reconciling them with their victims.
The group’s final purpose, he mentioned, is to supply “an area for folks to rework their trauma from one thing that brings loss of life to their life to one thing that brings life.”
At one other latest occasion at a church within the close by metropolis of Aurora, which has seen an alarming surge in gun violence, the group held an nameless gun buyback and disabled 75 firearms, 50 of which had been semi-automatic. RAWtools pays $100 for normal rifles, $200 for handguns and semi-automatic firearms and $300 for AR-style rifles.
Chris Silkwood of Denver donated his semi-automatic rifle plus $500 to RAWtools after his spouse learn concerning the group and mentioned she wished him to eliminate the gun for her birthday.
Silkwood used to work in Iraq and Afghanistan for a development firm that contracted with the U.S. navy and acquired the rifle and a handgun after the navy required the corporate’s workers to be armed.
A couple of 12 months after he stopped working within the Center East, Silkwood mentioned the taking pictures at Sandy Hook made him take into consideration his personal younger daughter — simply beginning faculty on the time — and why anybody ought to personal a rifle like his and the one used within the bloodbath.
“I couldn’t consider a superb purpose,” mentioned Silkwood. “It’s designed for one objective solely and that’s to kill folks, and normally lots of people.”
Silkwood, who mentioned he is not against all weapons, didn’t wish to promote the rifle out of concern that it could find yourself within the improper fingers so it sat unused for a few decade till, with the assistance of RAWtools, he turned it into his spouse’s birthday reward.
He mentioned he felt each reduction and delight on the backyard instrument he created.
“The sense of reduction got here from the truth that that gun was gone now and was by no means going for use for something besides basically for gardening,” he mentioned.
For Evans, the mission of RAWtools meshes together with her personal, which incorporates talking publicly about her street to forgiving — and even advocating for — her son’s killers.
She mentioned that path started the identical evening her son died in her arms, when she mentioned she felt a presence and heard a voice asking if she would forgive the killers. She instantly agreed.
Evans, who went on to type a gang prevention group and now runs the Colorado Crime Survivors Community, took the chance in 2012 to satisfy face-to-face for eight hours with one of many shooters, Raymond Johnson, who was serving his time in a Colorado jail. From that time on, she mentioned, she accepted Johnson as her son and began advocating for his launch.
Johnson, who was 15 on the time of the taking pictures, accomplished a re-entry program for juveniles convicted as adults and walked out of jail a free man final November. Evans mentioned the opposite shooter, Paul Littlejohn, is anticipated to be launched quickly.
For Evans, therapeutic has are available many types — by her spirituality, forgiveness and advocacy work. However she mentioned she finds probably the most peace in telling Casson’s story.
“So long as I proceed to succeed in out to different folks, I maintain Casson alive,” she mentioned. “And that’s my purpose. So long as I dwell, I’m going to maintain Casson alive with me by sharing my story of forgiveness and the way God is ready to heal you.”