Cerberus selling stake in firearms after Newtown (and Teacher’s Union Pension Fund Divestment Threat)
http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Cerberus-selling-stake-in-firearms-after-Newtown-4127061.php
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer
Updated 11:29 am, Tuesday, December 18, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — The private equity firm Cerberus will sell the firearms company that produced one of the weapons believed to have been used in the shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., calling it a “watershed event” in the national debate on gun control.
Cerberus said Tuesday that it would sell its stake in the Freedom Group, which stood at 95 percent as of a 2011 regulatory filing. Freedom Group owns the Bushmaster rifle brand, as well as Remington and other gun makes.
On Friday, 20 children were killed, 26 people in all, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S history. The gunman, Adam Lanza, is believed to have used a .223-caliber Bushmaster AR-15 rifle in the attack.The AR-15 is a civilian version of the military’s M-16. Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the U.S. under the 1994 assault weapons ban. That law expired in 2004, and Congress failed to renew it under immense pressure from the gun lobby.
Cerberus, however, is distancing itself.
“We are investors, not statesmen or policy makers,” the company said in a statement. “Our role is to make investments on behalf of our clients who are comprised of the pension plans of firemen, teachers, policemen and other municipal workers and unions, endowments, and other institutions and individuals. It is not our role to take positions, or attempt to shape or influence the gun control policy debate. That is the job of our federal and state legislators.”
Elsewhere, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. said in a statement that it suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of its stores. The company also removed all guns from sale and display at its store closest to Newtown.
And it appeared investors as a whole were ridding themselves of shares in firearms makers this week.…snip…
The announcement comes one day after the California State Teachers Retirement System, a large pension fund, told The Wall Street Journal that it was reviewing its $500 million investment commitment to Cerberus because of the firm’s stake in Freedom Group.
…snip…
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/crime/article/Cerberus-selling-stake-in-firearms-after-Newtown-4127061.php#ixzz2FQLg8LEu
Most of these are vanity guns - not intended to do anything other than please an ego - like those middle aged and middle class men who all of a sudden by an expensive Harley and think they are bikers at age 45 and want to go to Sturgis.
Based on youtube videos, all these guys do with weapons like these when not shooting up schools is shoot at targets while being obnoxious.
Just like this jerk-off in the video below who dresses up like he is in “Seal Team 6” or some such.
If you dress in camo like this on the weekends you might be a potential child mass murderer: