Divesting from Gun Stocks
One way individuals can help fight gun violence is to follow the advice of Columbine survivor and lifelong anti-gun activist Briar Goldberg, and divest from gun manufacturers' stocks.
The following are the gun manufacturers that sell stock in the US.
Vista Outdoor Inc. (NYSE: VSTO)
Sturm Ruger & Company Inc. (RGR)
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) - along with parent American Outdoor Brands Corp. (NASDAQ: AOBC)
Many ordinary people unwittingly invest in these companies because the mutual funds in their retire accounts include them. A list of mutual funds investing in each of the these companies is available here. Please check it to see if your money is going to gun manufacturers' wallets.
Please check your investments and call your provider to divest today!
Background:
"I am a Columbine survivor who calls and donates religiously. I am also a Columbine survivor who, three weeks ago, found out I was a partial owner in the very company that makes AR-15 assault rifles," said Briar Goldberg, Columbine survivor.
36-year-old Briar Goldberg, is a survivor of what has become the first in an endless stream of school massacres 19 years ago at Columbine High School. Now married and a mother herself, Briar has been an anti-gun activist ever since.
So imagine her shock, only three weeks ago, as she and her husband were reviewing their investment accounts, to discover that, through the mutual funds in which she had been diligently investing all these years, she has been an active and unwitting investor in the three largest gun manufacturers in the country, supporting those very companies who claimed the lives of her classmates and against whom she has been fighting the past two decades!
Needless to say, she contacted her financial adviser and ordered immediate liquidation of any funds that had investments in those companies' stock.
Briar urges that we all put our money where our mouths are and follow her example and her lead. Please divest in any fund that invests in any of the following companies:
Vista Outdoor Inc. (NYSE: VSTO)
Sturm Ruger & Company Inc. (RGR)
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) - along with parent American Outdoor Brands Corp. (NASDAQ: AOBC)