Southfield priest launches ongoing gun buyback program

SOUTHFIELD/BERKLEY —  Rev. Chris Yaw, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, announced the launch of Disamory Ministries on April 29. The nonprofit Christian ministry is “seeking to care for neighbors by providing gun buyback opportunities,” coupling thoughts and prayers with action to get unwanted guns off the streets. 

“I stand before you with a very heavy heart, a heart weighed down with the senseless suffering of too many gun violence victims in our country,» said Yaw, the president of Disamory Ministries, at the press conference. “It is a nation where the cries of parents over their children, two of whom are shot every hour in the U.S., are too often heard. It is the wails of family members who discover yet another victim has died of a self-inflicted gunshot, the most common form of gun violence in America, and it is the general sobbing of the victim of a crime committed with a stolen firearm, as more than half of them are.” 

Yaw has been an activist for gun buybacks, having appeared on “The Daily Show” and in a New York Times article that found the guns collected at buybacks in Flint and Southfield were not destroyed but were instead recycled and resold. Additionally, since 2022, St. David’s Episcopal has hosted gun buyback events that have disposed of more than 650 firearms.

“We’re not waiting for our government to do something. We’re not waiting for our hospitals to do something. We’re not waiting for our institutions to do something. Today, we, the people, are taking decisive action to end the proliferation of dangerous firearms in our communities. Today, we are here to change America’s firearm disposal habits,” Yaw said, adding that Disamory Ministries will be the nation’s first ongoing gun buyback.

The mission was supported by other local religious leaders, including Rabbi Aaron Starr, spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield; Pastor Barry Randolph from Church of Messiah in Detroit, who started the Silence the Violence March in honor of gun violence victims in 2007; Rt. Rev. Bonnie A. Perry, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan and a co-convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence; and the Rev. Anders Edstrom, the pastor of Greenfield Presbyterian Church where Disamory Ministries will operate. 

Local government officials, such as Berkley Councilman Dennis Hennen and Southfield Mayor Ken Siver, spoke in support of the nonprofit. Siver shared the story of a friend whose murder he witnessed. 

“I can tell you I am very anti-gun, period. And my real dislike for guns happened 51 years ago while in Detroit on the street, meeting a friend. A mugging took place, and my friend was shot dead, murdered right from my eyes. It’s something I’ve never gotten over. To be right there and have someone shot through the heart and life of a 27-year-old man is over,” he said. 

Siver added, “I applaud Father Yaw for his determination on this program, and we support it. I will spread the word that every Friday, we’ll be here to collect for those who don’t want these weapons.” 

West Bloomfield resident and member of St. David’s Episcopal Church,  Mary Bensmiller, oversees the “guns and crafts” portion of the program, where the broken gun pieces are used to create art. She said the point of making art out of the broken gun pieces is “to make something positive and beautiful to come out of a gun instead of something destructive.” 

Bensmiller shared a story of a woman whose mother had Alzheimer’s and passed away: 

“She was going through and cleaning out her chest of drawers, and she found a loaded handgun, so she brought the gun to be destroyed. And she was very emotional, very upset about it. I was sitting and talking with her, and I said, ‘Well, you know, think about some happy times, better times that you and your mom had together.’

“She started talking about how they went to Acadia National Park, and they watched the puffins jumping off the rocks into the ocean and how fun it was. We were playing with some of the pieces that came out of the gun, and one of them kind of looked like a penguin-ish type bird. We put some rocks, and we put the penguin on top, and we had some springs to make waves and blue beads. And before you knew it, we had a little Puffin jumping into the ocean made out of the gun parts from her mom’s gun. Now when she looks at that, she thinks of the happy times that she had with her mom.”

Disamory Ministries is located at 2312 Greenfield Road in Berkley, in the parking lot of Greenfield Presbyterian Church. The chop saws will be operated by trained professionals who follow the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms guidelines for handling firearms. The buyback is open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. It’s free to the public, and reservations can be made online at disarmory.org or by calling (855) 307-2011.

Kroger and Meijer gift cards will be given in exchange for the firearms, with a $300 limit per donation. Fifty dollars is offered for a long gun, $100 for a pistol and $200 for an assault weapon.

To learn more about Disamory Ministries, visit disarmory.org.