WORCESTER, Mass. - The Worcester County "Guns to Gardens" program is designed to help community members protect themselves from the dangers of firearms as well as give the tools another purpose.

UMass Memorial says over 4,000 guns have been turned into law enforcement since the program began 21 years ago.

"Obviously we're not going to pull off the guns off the street," said Worcester Deputy Chief of Police Edward McGinn. "These are guns that are in people's homes or people may possess from a variety of different means. Perhaps it was a family member that died. Perhaps it had just been in the house for years and years. Perhaps someone was in the gang life and they just don't know how to get rid of it."

The guns themselves are exchanged for gift cards offered by UMass Memorial Healthcare along with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office. 

UMass Memorial says 90% of suicide attempts with a gun are fatal, compared to 4% when a gun isn't involved.

Worcester's medical director, Dr. Michael Hirsh, says it's vital to have buyback programs to protect the physical and mental health of the community.

"We know from a very important paper in 1992," said Hirsh. "That a gun in the home is a 22 times more likely incidence of the person that owns the gun in the home injuring themselves or somebody in their family than taking on an intruder."

Hirsh said the program expanded a few years ago to have the crushed firearms be remade into garden tools like leaf rakes and spades.

He said the goal is to try to create something that might have a more positive influence.

"It's nice to kind of transfer the negative energy," Hirsh said. "That a firearm could represent into something positive where we're growing something to beautify the neighborhoods to feed the people."

The gift cards consist of $50 for a rifle, $100 for a pistol and $150 for any semi-automatic weapon.