Focus on this artwork and explore the History.
The Augsburgers began work on the sculpture in 1994. Esther was living in Washington, D.C., with her husband Myron Augsburger, a prominent Mennonite pastor, and teaching after-school art classes. She heard her students talking often about family members lost to gun violence, and one of her own students was shot and killed. She and Michael Augsburger, her son, learned of a gun buyback program coordinated by the D.C. police and funded by heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe.
 The guns were originally slated to be melted down for use in fences, but the Augsburgers convinced the police chief to disable the guns, including semi-automatic TEC-9s and Smith & Wesson revolvers, and allow them to be used in the project.The sculpture took three years to complete at a cost of $125,000. It was installed on August 20, 1997, in Judiciary Square, outside D.C. police headquarters. After remaining there for over a decade, the sculpture was moved into storage in 2008 during a renovation of the D.C. Historic Courthouse nearby. In January 2011, it was installed near a police evidence management facility in D.C.On October 10, 2017, after having been returned to storage for some time, the sculpture was refurbished and moved to the campus of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where another of Esther's sculptures, Love Essence, also stands. Esther was the first student to graduate from the school with an art degree, and her husband Myron was president of the school between 1965 and 1980. D.C. police have expressed interest in having the sculpture returned to their premises.
Eastern Mennonite University Mennonite Harrisonburg, Virginia Judiciary Square Washington, D.C. Riddick Bowe TEC-9 evidence management Myron Augsburger Smith & Wesson