CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For Adam Good, gun violence is personal.
A couple of years ago, he said his father, Stuart Good, shot and killed his wife, Cindy Good, before turning the gun on himself.
“Not only did we lose a father, we had a murderer as a father. Someone who killed someone, and we had to reconcile that and struggle with that,” Good said.
The last three years have weighed heavily on Good’s family.
“Every time there’s another shooting, or every time we hear about an active shooter in our town, it feels more real and more personal because we’ve seen it happen first hand,” Good said.
But this weekend in Chapel Hill, he turned in one of his father’s handguns to a gun give back, where the firearm was cut to pieces.
The event, organized by Chapel Hill Town Council Candidate Renuka Soll, took in handguns and rifles to be sliced into pieces and be recycled.
She and others said it’s a way of raising awareness about gun violence after recent mass shootings across the country.
“These are people who truly feel unsafe with a gun, and don’t want it anymore,” Soll said. “This is a way to get rid of it.”
Gayle Streifford drove from Cary to give back two guns Saturday.
“We have grandchildren, and we really didn’t want the guns in the house around them, and we don’t use them,” Streifford said.
Growing up with guns, she said she’s comfortable with them being used for recreation, not violence.
“If people want to go out and shoot clay pigeons, which I did as a child, I’m all for it. But, the dangerous aspect of some of the more dangerous guns are really bad,” she said.
She hopes to see more events like this in the future.
“I think there’s more people, like me, who may have had a gun, maybe 40 or 50 years ago even, and it’s just sitting around,” Streifford said. “It’s a possible danger for a lot of people.”
Soll said the slice up parts of the guns will be recycled next week.