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Teacher Union Pensions Invest In Firearm And Ammunition Manufacturers


Reported by Richard Pollock | Reporter | 9:12 PM 02/27/2018

SPRINGVILLE, UT – JUNE 17: This picture of an AR-15 (B) and a Ruger 10-22 (T), both semi-automatic guns at Action Target on June 17, 2016 in Springville, Utah. Semi-automatics are in the news again after the nightclub shooting in Orlando F;lord last week. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

  • Pension investments show teachers are willing to invest in the nation’s biggest gun and ammunition manufacturers
  • The issue of gun violence has focused teachers with renewed, emotional calls for gun control
  • Teacher union pension investments buy stock in gun and ammunition companies

Liberal teachers may claim they abhor guns, but their pension investments show they are willing to invest in the nation’s biggest gun and ammunition manufacturers, according to a review of teacher institutional investments by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The issue of gun violence has focused teachers across the country with renewed, emotional calls for gun control following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., by alleged gunman 19-year old Nikolas Cruz. Seventeen were killed.

Despite teacher’s calls for gun control and a ban on semi-automatic rifles, teacher pension funds have invested for years in gun and ammunition companies such as Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Vista Outdoor; the Olin Corporation, which sells Winchester gun products; and American Outdoor Brands, which now manufacture Smith & Wesson weapons.

The four manufacturers produce a wide range of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, high-performance and semi-automatic AR rifles, silencers, range finders and scopes. AR-style rifles were used in the Florida shooting and 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. 

Teacher’s views on guns have been decidedly negative. A 2013 poll by the National Education Association (NEA) found 76 percent of NEA members “support a proposal to ban the sale and possession of military-style semi-automatic assault weapons to everyone except the police and military.”

The public fails to notice that teacher and public employee unions — even in progressive states such as New York and California — have invested in gun and ammunition companies. It has been lining the pockets of teachers upon retirement.

Left-wing unions are now turning wrath toward their own pension fund investments in the nation’s top firearm and ammunition manufacturers.

“We definitely don’t agree with our money being invested in those types of companies,” said Melissa Tomlinson, the assistant executive director of Badass Teachers Association, an activist teacher’s group representing 65,000 teachers. They have ties to the national American Federation of Teachers.

“We are in touch with unions to make sure our pension managers are responsibly looking at what our pensions are invested in,” Tomlinson told TheDCNF in an interview.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) is urging Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, to remove investments from gun manufacturers now in the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan. Their pension plan currently owns stock in Vista Outdoors; Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Smith & Wesson and Olin.

FEA President Joanne McCall said she hopes the money could be divested elsewhere in light of the Cruz shooting. “We would hope and encourage the governor and the cabinet to divest from those companies and place our money somewhere else,” McCall said, according to the Orlando Weekly.

However, some school fund managers are proud of their investment in guns and ammunition companies. David Bradley, a board member of the Texas Permanent School Fund, told TheDCNF the teachers who are upset about investment in gun companies “are a bunch of weenies.”

“We don’t kowtow to every special interest that wants us to divest. We’re in the business of making money for public education,” he told TheDCNF in an interview.

“If you’re a fiduciary, you’re responsible for investment returns, not to push my own personal agenda,” Bradley stated.

Teacher union pension investments from coast-to-coast have continued to buy stock in gun and ammunition companies despite the outrage expressed by many teachers following recent school shootings.

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, one of the largest pension funds in the country, quietly liquidated its $2.7 million investment in Vista Outdoor Inc. last week, a CalSTRS spokeswoman told TheDCNF. Vista Outdoor is a company that produces arms and ammunition for hunters and the military. “The Shooting Sports segment includes pistol, rifle, rimfire, shotshell ammunition, primers, centerfire rifles, rimfire rifles, shotguns and range systems,” according to the company’s website.

The CalSTRS spokeswoman acknowledged the teacher’s group did not issue a press release or any other public statement about its divestment in the company. However, CalSTRS continues its investment in the Olin Corp., which makes ammunition, including small-caliber military ammunition, according to a CNBC report.

New York State Teachers Retirement System owns $1.3 million in Vista Outdoor and $2.6 million in Sturm Ruger. Sturm sells pistols, revolvers and rifles. It offers 16 different rifles, including those that are on the AR rifle semi-automatic platform.

“No decision has been made on divestment of gun stocks from our portfolios,” John Cardillo, the New York pension’s spokesman, told CNBC.

TIAFF, the “Teachers Insurance and Annuity Associates-College Retirement Equities Fund,” represents five million teachers and educators, and the fund invests $6 million in Vista Outdoor; Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson, according to their institutional investment disclosures. A TIAFF spokeswoman defended the investments. “Our exposure to these companies is extraordinarily small and is confined to passive portfolios which track specific market indices, such as the Russell 2000,” the spokeswoman told TheDCNF in an email.

Katie Kaufmanis, a spokeswoman for the Public Employees Retirement Fund of Colorado, said the public employee union, which includes public school teachers, claimed their investments totaled $1.3 million and was invested in four “gun manufacturing-related companies” in indexed, passive portfolios. The investments include Vista Outdoor; Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson.

Other teacher unions with firearm investments include Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Kentucky and Texas Permanent School Fund.

“We don’t have a gun problem here in Texas,” said Bradley who, instead of running away from the investments, said he was proud of them. “The federal government goes in and declares schools to be ‘gun-free zones.’ Well the only one’s paying attention to the sign are law-abiding, rational people. It’s the ‘nut jobs’ who know if they walk in there, nobody’s going to challenge them.”

“If someone is armed, granted they might only have a 9 mm and this guy may have an AK-47 with hundreds of rounds,” Bradley added. “The reality is, though, you’ve changed the dynamic. He’s no longer going to be shooting innocent people. He’s going to go into self-protection mode to focus on who’s attacking him. So you do save lives,” he said.

The National Education Association did not reply to inquiries by TheDCNF.

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MORE MOUNTING EVIDENCE THAT LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER: ‘Anti-gun stupidity’: Honolulu destroys $575G worth of police firearms


waving flagBy  / Published August 31, 2015 / FoxNews.com

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The police who once carried the weapons were reportedly interested in buying them, but Honolulu officials had them destroyed. (Ammoland.com)

Second Amendment advocates are firing away at a decision by Honolulu officials to destroy $575,000 worth of perfectly good handguns in a move one critic called the “height of anti-gun stupidity.” Some 2,300 Smith & Wesson 9 mm handguns, including at least 200 that are brand-new and in unopened boxes, were issued to the city’s police department. But with the 2,200-member force upgrading to lighter and less expensive Glock 17s, the guns were set to be permanently holstered. While it is customary throughout the country for departments to auction the guns to law-abiding citizens, including the police who once carried them, or donate them to another department, Honolulu opted to destroy them.Keys taken

“Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Honolulu Police Department agreed that they would not allow the guns to be sold to the general public and end up on the streets of Honolulu,” Honolulu Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu told FoxNews.com. “The same goes for selling the individual gun parts that could have been used to assemble a gun.”

“These guns in the hands of lawful civilians could provide an important means of self-defense, especially for low income people who can’t afford them.”

– Alan Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation.

Selling the guns, with mandatory background checks to ensure they were only purchased by legal owners, could have netted the city $575,000, according to Hawaii News Now. Several police officers reportedly were interested in buying old service weapons for personal use, and the department has previously sold phased-out weapons to its staff, but this time opted to melt them down two weeks ago. Yu said no other police departments were interested in the guns.

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“Law enforcement in American Samoa initially expressed interest in acquiring some of the guns, but there was a change in administration and the new administration is no longer interested,” she said. “The local sheriff’s department recently replaced their guns, and other county police departments (Kauai, Maui and Hawaii) are looking to replace their Smith & Wessons in the future.”Partyof Deceit Spin and Lies

A representative for Smith & Wesson declined to comment, stating that the company does not provide any information regarding their customers in law enforcement.

Despite Yu’s claims, the Hawaii state sheriffs division – which uses the same gun manufacturer – told Hawaii News Now that no offer for donation was made to them.

Hawaii’s Department of Public of Safety recently replaced its Smith & Wesson firearms with different SIG Sauer models and received a credit of more than $150,000 for trading in its old guns. But Yu no trade-in discount was available and insisted “the only remaining option was to destroy the guns so they don’t end up on the street.”

Destroying working firearms, as well as valuable taxpayer property, was “the height of anti-gun stupidity and will not stop one criminal from getting a weapon,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. “These guns in the hands of lawful civilians could provide an important means of self-defense, especially for low income people who can’t afford them,” Gottlieb said. “Or the sale of them could help pay for much needed law enforcement equipment to help keep the public safe.”

Any city the size of Honolulu could use $575,000, said Amy Hunter, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action. “There is no reason why these firearms couldn’t be used by law enforcement or sold to law-abiding citizens, the proceeds of which could go to much-needed infrastructure, programs, training, etc,” she said.

The Hawaii Rifle Association’s President Harvey Gerwig, together with safety training non-profit Lessons in Firearms Education President Bill Richter wrote directly to Caldwell over the issue, emphasizing that “in these times of lean budgets and continual cost cutting to needed city services, to throw away a half a million dollars seems senseless.”you think

“The reason your office and HPD gave for not selling to the public seemed to be a slight on those legal gun owners who would have purchased them and who supported you during your election,” the letter continued. “You should be ashamed for suggesting that the good citizens of Hawaii cannot be trusted with buying HPD’s surplus guns for fear of them falling into criminal hands when record numbers of firearms have been bought by those same citizens for the last ten years without any such problems.”

Over the last 15 years, the number of guns registered in Hawaii increased dramatically. Data released by the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office shows that 420,409 firearms were registered from 2000 to 2014, in addition to the already existing one million firearms in a state that has an estimated population of 1.4 million.

Hawaii has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation, which some attribute to its spike in ownership per capita, while others claim it is a result of its strict gun control laws.

Caldwell’s office declined to elaborate on Yu’s comments. The Hawaii Police Officers Union, did not respond to requests for comment.

But while the destruction of the guns generated criticism from the gun rights community, others have welcomed it. “It beats putting those (guns) back on the streets,” said Ladd Everitt, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “There are so many loopholes in federal law that dangerous people often get guns legally in this country. There’s a reason that Hawaii has the lowest gun death rate in the country,” he added. “They’d rather see guns destroyed than families.”

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