(February 15, 2013) — New York City’s $46.6 billion teacher pension fund has divested from publicly-traded firearm manufacturers.
The New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) is the latest public pension in the United States to make such a divestment in response to the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. The fund is also now the largest public pension to fully divest from commercial gun and ammunition firearm manufacturers since the tragedy in Newtown. “Others have begun the process, but TRS has completed it,” Connor Osetek, a TRS spokesperson, confirmed with aiCIO.
“There is no need to support these companies, whose products can destroy lives and shatter communities in the blink of an eye,” said New York City Comptroller John Liu in a statement. “Our investment portfolio gains nothing by doing business with these firms, and this is a sound decision that sends an important message about our commitment to addressing the plague of gun violence in every possible way.”
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, added: “This is the right thing to do. After the tragedy at Sandy Hook, we, as educators, had to make sure that guns were not part of our holdings.”
The five companies TRS divested from are: Alliant Techsystems Inc., Olin Corporation, Forjas Taurus SA, Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, and Sturm, Ruger & Company.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his representatives that oversee the pension fund for city schoolteachers voted against a proposal to drop investments in companies that sell firearms or ammunition.
Institutional investors around the country have taken a similar approach to TRS. In January, Chicago Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanual ordered all city pension funds to divest from guns. Earlier that month, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) decided to dump gunmakers from its portfolio. “Divestment in such firms would comply with CalSTRS’ existing investment policy and comport with the board’s fiduciary duty to members and beneficiaries,” California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said in a statement. Lockyer also noted that assault weapons clearly fall into the category of being a product “detrimental to public health and safety.”