Ep 248 Peacewarts Summer Break & Bullet Poof Bulletins Launch
Ep 248 Peacewarts Summer Break & Bullet Poof Launch
In this personal riffing episode, Avis shares an update on the Peacewarts curriculum, reflects on the first three departments of the series, and introduces the upcoming Resonant Charms classes beginning later this summer. He also discusses the launch of his new novella, Bullet Poof, releasing during National Gun Violence Awareness Month.
The episode moves between curriculum reflections, satire, personal storytelling, and broader questions about fear, normalization, and the systems that sustain gun culture and war culture. Avis shares experiences from workplace active shooter trainings, real estate safety seminars, and family tragedies involving firearms, while explaining why satire can still serve as a human response to systems of fear and absurdity.
Beginning June 1, the podcast will feature daily Bullet Poof Bulletins with the return of Kitty O’Compost broadcasting from the fictional Spoke Easy Community Forge and Makerspace.
Topics covered include Universal Understars, Living Roots, Chronicled Courage, the overview effect, peace as biological reality, Indigenous peace traditions, Vasily Arkhipov, Bayard Rustin, systems of militarization, war budgets, satire and social critique, active shooter culture, National Gun Violence Awareness Month, and the upcoming Resonant Charms department.
Resources & Links
National Gun Violence Awareness Month: Wear Orange WearOrange.orgBullet Poof by Avis Kalfsbeek: Bullet Poof Aviskalfsbeek.com/bullet_poofMore books, podcast episodes, and Peacewarts classes: AvisKalfsbeek.comPodcast music: Javier Peke Rodriguez on Bandcampe https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/
Ways to Take Action
The book Bullet Poof is book is fiction. The work is real. If you want to help reduce gun violence, support survivors, volunteer, learn more, or safely surrender firearms, these organizations are a place to begin.
These are places to begin, not a full inventory of everyone doing good work.
Turn In or Repurpose Firearms
Support a gun turn-in or repurposing effort, donate to one, or attend a local event.
Guns to Gardens (https://rawtools.org/swords-to-plowshares/) A national movement that provides a safe, legal, and community-centered way to discard unwanted firearms. Working through local networks, they host safe-surrender events where weapons are permanently disabled according to federal ATF guidelines, preventing them from ever causing future harm.
RAWtools (rawtools.org) An organization dedicated to turning weapons into gardening implements, literally guiding the modern-day execution of beating swords into plowshares. They take the steel from disabled firearms and hand-forge it into tools that cultivate food, life, and community growth.
• The Humanium Metal Initiative (humanium-metal.com) — A global program
transforming illegal firearms into peace metal for watches, pens, and art, reinvesting all proceeds into survivor support programs.
Art is My Weapon (org) A community initiative that takes decommissioned firearms from safe-surrender programs and distributes them to artists to create expressions of peace and healing.
Robby Poblete Foundation (org) Founded by Pati Navalta Poblete after her son was killed by gun violence in Vallejo, California in 2014. Runs community gun buybacks and distributes decommissioned parts to artists to create works of healing and remembrance through the Art of Peace exhibition series.
Fonderie 47 (com) A global initiative that has destroyed over 70,000 AK-47s and assault rifles in Africa, transforming the metal into luxury products whose proceeds fund weapons removal programs in conflict zones.
Support Survivors and Prevention Work
Take action, volunteer, donate, organize locally, or support survivors and prevention programs through these groups. Many have targeted initiatives.
Everytown for Gun Safety (org) National advocacy, research, and survivor support.
Sandy Hook Promise (org) Founded
