California Treasurer Urges State Pension Funds to Drop Gun Sellers
“Let us leave our platitudes and rituals of grief at the door and focus on what can be done to deny weapons of mass carnage to the next loon.”
After the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, when a gunman shot dead 20 schoolchildren, California
pension funds began the process of divesting investments in gun manufacturers.
John Chiang, California’s treasurer, urged board members of the state’s pension funds on Friday to divest holdings of retailers
that sell guns and ammunition around the country that are illegal in California, which has stricter gun laws than most states.
Last year, New York City Employees’ Retirement System voted to divest its shares in Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s and Big 5 Sporting Goods.
“Shock and sympathy provide little consolation to the families who must now bury a child, a sibling, a spouse, or a loved one,” Mr. Chiang, a Democrat,
wrote in a letter to the Teachers’ Retirement Board, which administers the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, known as Calstrs.
Calstrs and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System together own about $12.4 million in shares of Dick’s stock
and $1.7 million of Big 5, according to its most recent published holdings and current market prices.