From guns to roses: Program transforms weapons to gardening tools

A new program aims to get guns off the street and into the garden … with the help of some prison inmates.

“Every gun that we get off the street, out of a home that doesn’t need to be there, it’s a success,” New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell told NBC Connecticut.

The city’s buyback event brought in 138 firearms, including two assault weapons.

The weapons will be destroyed and then shipped to a prison where inmates at the New Haven Correctional Center will recast them into gardening tools. From there, the tools will be donated to New Haven, Conn., schools to help grow gardens.

Here’s how the weapons will be transformed:

Other gardening tools

These tools have not been recycled from guns, but they still do a fine job in your garden.