Full article is here. I cut out a bit of the middle to give people an easier read. Basically, stockholders are starting to exert pressure on gun companies after Florida. I know from several friends in the cycling business that there is lot of talk of boycotting other brands that American Outdoor owns (like Giro, Bell, Camelbak, etc) as a way to exert pressure on BlackRock
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world’s largest asset manager put U.S. gunmakers on notice on Thursday that it is no longer business as usual in the wake of a shooting that killed 17 at a Florida high school.
BlackRock Inc said it will speak with weapons manufacturers and distributors “to understand their response” to the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S. history, putting pressure on companies such as Sturm Ruger & Company Inc and American Outdoor Brands Corp.
BlackRock is the largest shareholder in both gunmakers and has more than $6 trillion in assets under management. It stopped short of saying it would divest its funds of gun companies, however.
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It owns about 17 percent of the total shares of Sturm Ruger and has about 11 percent of American Outdoor Brands, for instance, according to U.S. regulatory filings. The shares are largely held in funds that track indexes, such as the $6 billion iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF.
BlackRock and other large index fund managers carry clout partly through their proxy votes, such as for directors and on matters brought to a vote by shareholders.
Both American Outdoor and Sturm Ruger for instance face shareholder resolutions calling for them to report on their efforts related to gun safety, according to a list of resolutions kept by the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.