Kensington Based Preacher Turns Guns into Garden Tools

RAWtools Philadelphia is a non-profit focused on peace by repurposing donated firearms.

“The metal, it can be used for good,” said Shane Claiborne, co-founder of RAWtools Philadelphia. “It doesn’t have to be designed to take life. It can be designed to give life.”

Claiborne, a devout Christian, husband and father, said he was guided by scripture and community when he began the organization. He believes it takes more than “thoughts and prayers” to respond to gun violence — and when tragedy landed on his doorstep, he decided to take action.

“We saw way too many lives cut short by gun violence and one of those was a 19 year old right in front of my house and a three year old that was shot,” he recalls, “In almost every corner of our neighborhood, we have the stories of who’s been shot… There comes a point where you just say, enough — we’ve got to do something about it.”

The healing power of transforming firearms

Claiborne decommissioned his first gun 11 years ago. He said the process of disabling, chopping and heating it then reshaping it with a hammer brought healing. He recalled the story of a mother whose innocent bystander son was killed by a stray bullet.

“She had a picture of her son on her jacket,” says Claiborne, “and with every thump of the hammer, she said, ‘this is for my boy.’”

RAWtools Philadelphia is located near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, a section of the city plagued by visible impacts of the opioid crisis. Kensington is also at the center of the city’s gun violence crisis, with the highest concentration of shootings in the entire country. Despite the city’s recent decline in gun violence, where Claiborne both lives and works continues to grapple with the epidemic. He believes the work is not just about removing guns from the streets; it’s about transforming the community, alongside the community.

“Transforming the metals — that’s the easy part of the work we do,” said Claiborne. “We also believe in transforming policies and a culture that’s so prone to violence and so we believe in heart change.”

Intersection of faith and activism

An estimated 378 million guns are in circulation in the United States, according to recent reporting by The Trace. As that number increased, so did the number of lives lost due to gun violence.

“What makes sense is to get rid of the guns, that’s how we make our community safe, and that’s what he’s doing,” said Adam Mills, a WHYY listener who nominated Claiborne for the Good Souls Project.

Originally from Bucks County, Mills said he doesn’t know Claiborne personally, but has followed his work and felt compelled to recognize his efforts. Mills is a member of the faith community and believes Claiborne’s work stands out, especially among evangelical Christians.

“Currently in America, the right and conservative Christianity is kind of intertwined with gun rights,” he said. “It never made sense to me. Instead, what made sense is what Shane’s living out: he’s getting guns off our streets, and he’s forging them and hammering them into gardening tools.”

To Mills, Claiborne’s work exemplifies the essence of being a good soul: “To be a good soul is to do good and to recognize the humanity in everyone.”

Claibornes’s activism doesn’t stop at RAWtools. He is the author of over half a dozen books, a public speaker, and co-founder of Red Letter Christians, an evangelical movement that focuses on justice as much as on Jesus.

“Whether it’s race or gun violence, the death penalty, mass incarceration, systemic injustice, all those things for me came both from my faith and from leaning in to Jesus and the things that he said,” said Claiborne. “But it also came from living here in Kensington and seeing what inequity and injustice really look like.”

From the Bible Belt to Kensington

Born and raised in Tennessee, Claiborne says guns were a regular part of life in the Bible Belt.

“My dad was in the military, my family members are all hunters and are still gun owners,” he said, acknowledging that his relationship with firearms is nuanced and deeply personal.

Claiborne first came to Philadelphia in the early ’90s to study sociology at Eastern University. As a student, he became involved in a coalition that advocated for affordable housing by converting abandoned properties into homes. This initiative became known as “The Simple Way,” and laid the foundation for his understanding of community-building.

“We just began building this little village,” he said, “taking one abandoned house at a time, one lot, and turning it into a garden.”

A pivotal moment in Shane’s life was his time in India, where he worked alongside Mother Teresa. Her philosophy of doing “small things with great love” left a lasting impact on him.

“She would say, ‘our best sermon is our life. So don’t just talk the gospel, but live the gospel, embody the gospel. And that’s my aspiration, I hope,” he said.

The Simple Way has grown since its early days, and now offers a food pantry, community support services and celebration events. However, the journey has not been without challenges. In 2007, a seven-alarm fire devastated the neighborhood, destroying Shane’s home, their community center, and displacing 100 people. Despite the destruction, Shane stayed and helped rebuild.

“It was one of the biggest fires in our neighborhood’s history,” he recalls. “But nobody ended up staying in the shelter because everybody in our neighborhood just started taking care of each other.”

Now, The Simple Way is comprised of a dozen or so properties, including a community garden, public spaces and the nonprofit’s headquarters. Shane also founded Simple Homes, a nonprofit that renovates vacant properties. The organization provides affordable housing with no-interest mortgages, customized payments, and homes priced at $35,000.

Pushing for change

Claiborne’s activism extends beyond the borders of Kensington. He has been a vocal advocate for reforming gun laws and ensuring that guns collected in buyback programs are destroyed rather than returned to the streets. In some states, donated firearms can be resold and end up back in circulation.

“Why would the police not destroy the guns on the spot? That’s what we’re really asking,” he said.

Claiborne has written op-eds demanding that Philadelphia become a city that decommissions all confiscated or surrendered firearms not needed by police or courts for investigation. He says he wrote his book, “Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence,” to encourage believers to take action when it comes to gun violence. Claiborne has even trained others in the process of safely decommissioning and transforming firearms in order to get more guns off the streets.

“He taught me how to weld and I got a shovel in the house right now with my name on it,” said Ronald, who has lived in the Kensington community.

“I personally do not like guns,” said the 18-year-old. “It was a new world and I would like to do it again.”

Ronald lost his cousin and several friends to gun violence and learning how to transform the metal of a gun, opened new doors for him.

At 48, Claiborne is a brand new father to his son, Eli. He says his activism is not about him; instead, his focus is the next generation.

“I’ve got a five-month-old baby, I want to build a world that is worthy of him, worthy of our children,” he says.

If you know someone who has performed an act of kindness, whether it be big or small and you think they serve as an example of compassion, generosity and service, nominate them here: whyy.org/goodsoulsform.