TULSA, Okla. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 reported more than 19,000 non-suicide-related gun deaths. That’s an average of 53 people dying every day.
But this story isn’t about numbers — it’s about the individual stories of those who died and those who carry their memories.
2 News Oklahoma’s Douglas Braff listened to those who lost loved ones to gun violence, as those lives were honored in a special way.
Every year, the Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry hosts a “Guns to Garden Tools” ceremony to honor the lives taken by gun violence.
We previously highlighted Guns to Garden Tools on Friday, ahead of Saturday's ceremony.
At buy-back events throughout the year, people give away their guns. Blacksmiths smelt the metal parts, which they repurpose into garden tools.
These garden tools are then handed to those at the ceremony.
Twila Gibbens with TMM told 2 News, “This is a sacred space right here.”
Out of respect for attendees’ privacy and for the sanctity of the ceremony, we didn’t record the ceremony that took place. But what we can you is that it was heavy with emotion — even therapeutic.
“It's a time of coming together and really sharing on a spiritual level that the loss and the pain, and also the healing with other people,” is what Rebecca Fincher told 2 News after the ceremony.
She paid tribute to her son Aiden, who died in 2021.
“He was sitting in his living room in his apartment on a Saturday afternoon, and the couple in the apartment next door got into an argument and were struggling over a loaded handgun,” she said. “And that gun went off.”
There was a gun sitting on top of an anvil. Fincher went up during the ceremony, said the name Aiden Fincher, before striking the gun with a hammer.
When asked how it felt to hit it, she replied, “You know, we've had this ceremony a couple of times, and I've done this both times and it's a cathartic feeling. It very much is.”
“You hear the ring, it makes a certain sound, and you feel that you're releasing something when you do this,” she added.
“I think that physical things have meanings, they have significance. And for me, this has a significance, to be able to strike that hammer and strike a blow back.”
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Watch LIVE 24/7 on YouTube
