Annettra Hicks knows firsthand the toll that gun violence in Fort Worth takes on its victims — and how hard it can be to find resources to heal.
Hicks, 40, has suffered the loss of family members and close friends who fell victim to gun violence.
In April, she wore a sweatshirt that belonged to her late friend Prada Vey Da Prince, a Fort Worth musician who died by gun violence in 2020. She wanted to feel close to her friend as she joined a group of local pastors and churchgoers in marching down Mississippi Avenue in southeast Fort Worth to raise awareness and honor those who died by gun violence along the street.
The coalition of about 20, led by Pastor Kyev Tatum of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, pushed an empty coffin about a mile down Mississippi, stopping at intersections where gun violence occurred to pray for victims. Organizers of the effort told the Fort Worth Report they were taking matters into their own hands to combat gun violence and address the mental toll it takes on communities of color in Fort Worth.
“This is just something we have not done well,” Tatum said. “The faith community is best positioned to do the response of trauma care in communities once they are trauma informed … then they can respond with the compassion that they’re commissioned to respond with.”
Their march was one of the first steps taken to launch a local chapter of the national Guns to Gardens program, which aims to convert unwanted firearms into garden tools for survivors of gun violence. The initiative, facilitated by the Colorado-based organization called RAWTools, aims to reduce gun violence in different neighborhoods, some with low life expectancy, by encouraging voluntary gun disposal in exchange for gift cards.
Volunteers within the program use a chop saw to dismantle unwanted guns and then use the metal to build garden tools and art. The program works with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, a nonprofit organization that provides required training programs for the Guns to Gardens volunteers to learn about the workings of the program and firearm safety. It also offers gun violence prevention resources and outreach to local congregations.
“It would save so many lives,” Hicks said of the program’s value. “To save a life, and give somebody an opportunity is huge, and it’s even bigger for the person. It’s something that they’re going to take with them forever.”
History of Guns to Gardens
The national Guns to Gardens program was started by a Mennonite pastor, Mike Martin, who felt a call after the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting to become a blacksmith and forge unwanted guns into garden tools.
Martin later founded RAWtools as a nonprofit network of blacksmiths across the nation and joined forces with theologians and faith organizations across the country to christen the Guns to Gardens project.
In 2022, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) became the first denomination to commend Guns to Gardens as a faithful witness for congregations, according to a press release from the denomination.
A Guns to Gardens program exists in Dallas, but one is needed for Tarrant County, particularly in the southeast part of Fort Worth, Tatum said. Gun violence in Fort Worth’s 76104 ZIP code, where Tatum grew up, is “horrific,” he said.
The Fort Worth Police Department reports 24 fatal shootings in the ZIP code 76104 from January 2020 to June 15, 2025, according to a Fort Worth Report analysis of police data obtained through a public information request. That’s about 5.7% of the total 424 fatalities reported.
Over the same time frame, the ZIP codes in Fort Worth that faced the highest rates of gun violence fatalities were:
- 76119 in southeast Fort Worth with 39 fatalities
- 76112 in east Fort Worth with 37 fatalities
- 76116 in southwest Fort Worth with 37 fatalities
- 76106 in north Fort Worth with 33 fatalities
- 76133 in southwest Fort Worth with 24 fatalities
The initiative was born from a desire to address racial disparities in gun violence fatalities and provide the resources and support he believes city leadership has failed to provide, Tatum said. The grassroots effort is being led by an interracial, interdenominational group of pastors from across the Fort Worth area, including Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist leaders.
“We recognize that homicides and suicides caused by gun violence do not discriminate,” Tatum said. “But how we respond to it is where the discrimination comes.”
Participants in the upcoming program may choose to surrender a gun that was used in a suicide or a homocide, Tatum said. In return, the program will provide gift cards as a “token of appreciation” to participants.
Tatum also intends to launch a community garden outside his southeast Fort Worth church, where participants in the program can garden and connect with nature as a way to help heal from trauma.
Tatum and other organizers are seeking donations with a $50,000 goal to fund the program. As of June, he said they’ve fundraised “very little.”
But he hopes that bringing a Guns to Gardens chapter to Fort Worth will bring more awareness to the issue of gun violence and teach clergy how to offer trauma-informed care to those impacted.
“We’re just feeling that we need to call on pastors and ministers to come into this space, to become trauma care informed, so that we can respond better. So that our kids don’t commit suicide because they can’t handle and manage life’s difficulties, from violence to the adverse childhood experiences they deal with.”
The Rev. Allison Sandlin Liles, vicar of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hurst, has been actively involved in gun violence prevention since 2012, inspired by the Sandy Hook shooting, in which 26 people were shot and killed at an elementary school, and her son’s fear of school shootings.
Being involved in gun violence prevention initiatives like Guns to Gardens is a physical way to take action and do “part of our job as Christians,” Liles said.
“I’m frustrated that the people who have the opportunity to change the laws to get these guns out of the streets or to prevent them from ever getting here in the first place, aren’t doing it,” Liles said. “We have to prove that our thoughts and our prayers … are not enough. This feels like a tangible action that we can take and to do it together.”
The organization plans to have a safe disposal event for unwanted firearms from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 6 at New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church. For more details, go here.
Want to get involved?
Donations can be made using the instructions on this form. For more information on how to join, contact fwtarrantcoguns2gardens@gmail.com.
After marching down Mississippi Avenue in April, congregants and clergy gathered at Tatum’s church, New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, to lay hands on the chop saw that will be used to dismantle firearms.
“As your people use this chop saw to make our community safe,” Liles said, reading a blessing.
“We ask that you use each of us as a tool of your peace, your healing and your love,” attendees responded.
Hicks, who joined the blessing with her 3-year-old son Dante Hicks, said she’s hopeful the Guns to Gardens program is helpful to communities of color.
To her, impacting even one individual would be a meaningful start.
“It’s going to start a ripple effect,” Hicks said. “And then that’s when things will actually start changing, and we’ll see things actually getting better.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.