Michigan ministry provides ongoing gun buybacks for unwanted firearms

By ENS Staff
Posted Apr 29, 2025

Bishop Bonnie A. Perry blesses two saws that will be used by Disarmory Ministries, a new nonprofit in Berkley, Michigan, that is the nation’s first ongoing gun buyback service. Photo: Todd Nissen

[Episcopal News Service] Disarmory Ministries, a non-profit Christian ministry that offers gun buybacks every Friday and Saturday in Berkley, Michigan, promoted its efforts with a news conference on April 29 in the parking lot where it works.

The ministry is the nation’s first ongoing gun buyback program, according to its website. It provides gift cards to local grocery stores in exchange for unwanted firearms.

“This is a needed service for many people in our state,” the Rev. Chris Yaw, Disarmory Ministries president, said. Yaw also is rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, Michigan, where he has hosted gun buyback events that have disposed of more than 650 firearms since 2022.

Yaw said that in the United States, about a fourth of the firearms are owned by people who didn’t purchase them. “Inherited and gifted firearms may be unwanted and less cared for, posing a potential public safety hazard,” he said.

Disarmory Ministries was not created to engage in debate around the Second Amendment, Yaw said.
“This is about the voluntary surrender of an unwanted firearm,” he said. “We have no agenda other than helping people who want to safely, conveniently and economically dispose of their firearm. Period.”

The ministry’s website further says that by eliminating unwanted guns, children, for whom firearms are now the number one cause of death, and those in mental distress, for whom firearm access increases the risk of suicide, especially, will benefit. In addition, communities will generally be safer, since a high percentage of crimes are committed with stolen weapons.

Oakland County Commission vice-chair Marcia Gershenson said, “We’re excited to provide an alternative for the owners of unwanted firearms.”

Michigan Bishop Bonnie A. Perry and other local faith leaders helped dedicate and bless the ministry’s equipment for gun disposal.

The Disarmory Ministries arrive when people’s sense of fear and isolation are growing, Perry said.
“I am in this so we can decrease the anxiety in one place for people,” she said. “We have got to address the end game around guns and this project is going to make that happen.”

On April 22, Perry joined hundreds of others at the state capitol in Lansing to rally for gun violence prevention. Perry is one of the conveners of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence, and is also a cofounder of End Gun Violence Michigan, which has fought for the past two years for passage of gun violence prevention laws.