When asked why she joined the fight against gun violence, Paula Hawthorn’s answer was simple: “Because God told me to.”
A staunch Episcopalian who doesn’t tend to speak or hear directly from God on a regular basis, the 82-year-old retired computer scientist from Oakland, Calif., rightfully mourned when three children were killed by gun violence in her hometown in 2011.
Oakland had begun to see a decrease in gun violence by the early 2000s following a peak in the 1980s and ’90s, when 3-year-old Carlos Nava Jr. was killed by a stray bullet while sitting in his stroller, 23-month-old Hiram Lawrence Jr. was shot in the head by a stray bullet in a shoot-out between rival gang members, and 5-year-old Gabriel Martinez Jr. was struck by a stray bullet while playing in front of a taco stand in less than five months’ time. Hawthorn began to pray in earnest. Not desirous to merely offer thoughts and prayers, she prayed for clear direction from above. She couldn’t not do something about the problem that plagued the city she loved, that was stealing the lives of the next generation.
Paula Hawthorn (left) is interviewed.
“I gave you certain talents. Use them,” she remembers God saying to her, while she sat in her front room quilting. Hawthorn began researching various anti-gun violence programs. She connected with Oakland Ceasefire Strategy, a partnership-based, intelligence-led and data-driven violence reduction strategy that began in Oakland in 2012 after years of community pressure. She joined the Brady Campaign, a national nonprofit that invites everyone who wants to end the epidemic of gun violence to take action, not sides. She began learning a lot about the problem, even if she wasn’t necessarily doing a whole lot to solve the problem.
A couple of months later, Hawthorn knelt before a statue of the Virgin Mary while on a trip to Paris. She recalls the exchange:
I always like to report to the Virgin Mary, so there I was, kneeling before her. “How are you doing? Thank you for your Son,” I said to her. And she immediately told me in a very strong voice, “What are you doing here? Why are you not taking care of my children?”
Even though the whole exchange made her yearn for a glass of wine at a Parisian café, Hawthorn felt reinvigorated to take action in the fight against gun violence. This time, she started connecting with various faith-based leaders and organizations, including pastors from True Vine Ministries in Oakland and leaders from RAW Tools, a national movement that seeks to disarm hearts, forge peace and cultivate justice by hosting “Guns to Gardens” events across the country.
Inspired by part of Isaiah 2:4, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,” at Guns to Gardens a blacksmith forges surrendered guns into useable garden tools. Organizers claim the outpourings offer a nonviolent and peaceful third way to the problem of gun violence: Instead of enacting more laws or resorting to more guns, “beating swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and guns into garden tools creates a dynamic shift in our investment in time and resources.”
Thanks to Hawthorn’s persistence, Guns to Gardens eventually found a home in Oakland as an innovative gun buyback event. Within 18 months, Hawthorn had found a local blacksmith, secured a location and ensured the support of the Oakland Police Department, whose presence is required at any gun surrender or buyback programs in the state of California.
Now, the town’s Guns to Gardens chapter has hosted five events in less than four years, amassing a total of 352 guns collected, along with other ammunition and surrendered weapons. In return, volunteers have distributed more than $15,000 in Target, Walmart and Chevron gift cards and offered garden tools forged from previously surrendered guns.
Workers at a 2024 Guns to Gardens buy-back event
At the most recent event on Saturday, Nov. 15, Hawthorn felt encouraged by the way volunteers stepped in without her tutelage and direction. Even though she had singlehandedly done much of the groundwork necessary to get the event off the ground, a memorial service for a dear friend meant the matriarch wasn’t able to get there until several hours after set-up began. To Hawthorn, however, it was “just delightful, marvelous, really,” to see 57 guns and one switchblade surrendered and more than $4,500 in Target gift cards and dozens of garden tools handed out in turn.
Paula Hawthorn does what she does out of a very deep faith, and still, God continues to speak to the proud Episcopalian.
She recalls a Sunday when she went to church, sat in the pew, and said to Jesus, “I’ve got to stop doing this — I’d much rather be home quilting or gardening.”
To this demand, God’s reply was once again simple: “Do you think I didn’t have anything better to do than be on that Cross for you?”
“OK, fine,” Hawthorn replied.
Nowadays, she’s glad not to hear so many direct messages from God.