By BETSY TAYLOR
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility — a coalition of shareholder advocates who view their investments as a catalyst for social change — is ramping up its activism in ways they hope will reduce gun violence.
A group of 142 institutional investors — including several religious congregations and Catholic health care systems — have signed the Interfaith Center's statement to urge gun manufacturers, retailers, distributors and companies with financial ties to gun industries to review their operations and policies for an improved response in support of gun safety measures.
Sisters of Bon Secours, employees of the Bon Secours Health System and supporters take part in the "March for Our Lives." The March 24 event in Washington, D.C., was led by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the scene of a mass shooting in February. Companion events were held in communities in the United States and internationally.
The work of Catholic organizations to combat gun violence predates recent mass shootings. However, the shooting deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14 raised important questions about how corporations and investors may unwittingly be funding gun violence, the Interfaith Center said.
The center's statement asks gun manufacturers and other businesses to adopt measures tied to the Sandy Hook Principles. Intended to reduce the risk of gun violence, the principles were put forward by then-Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in response to a mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December of 2012. The assailant used a semiautomatic weapon to kill 20 students between the ages of 6 and 7 and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter also killed his mother and committed suicide.
The statement calls on the gun industry including manufacturers and retailers to stop the sale or production of "military-style assault weapons" to civilians and limit the sale of guns and ammunition to purchasers 21 and older. The principles ask financiers, government entities and institutional investors including insurance companies and universities to consider requesting that companies they invest in adhere to the Sandy Hook Principles.
CHA is an affiliate member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. CHA also is among several Catholic organizations to support two recent statements from the Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence coalition to spur action on gun safety.
Scanlon
Call to mitigate harm
Colleen Scanlon, Catholic Health Initiatives' senior vice president and chief advocacy officer, said gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis. "We know there are very serious and devastating health consequences for individuals with these extreme acts of violence." The negative impact reverberates in communities and greater society, she said.
Scanlon said some faith-based organizations including CHI hold nominal amounts of stock in certain companies, such as tobacco companies or conventional weapons manufacturers, in order to dialogue with management about health concerns and work with these companies to seek improvements that mitigate ongoing harm. CHI continues to hold stock in gunmaker Sturm, Ruger & Co. for this reason.
She said some faith-based organizations, including CHI, also set policies that establish the type of companies they will not invest in, even nominally, such as a business that manufactures abortifacient drugs, as an example.
Sr. Byron
Shareholder resolutions
Scanlon filed a shareholder resolution on behalf of CHI with Sturm, Ruger & Co. early this year, to advocate for steps that could enhance gun safety. Sr. Judy Byron, OP, is director of a regional collaborative of faith-based institutions, the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment. She filed a similar resolution with American Outdoor Brands, which manufactures Smith & Wesson guns. The nonbinding resolutions will be put to separate shareholder votes this spring and summer.
Both resolutions have multiple co-filers, including Catholic health care systems and religious congregations. Scanlon said such nonbinding resolutions serve to inform companies about the concerns of their shareholders and so can spur companies to action.
The resolutions ask the boards of the gun manufacturers each to issue its own report by Feb. 8 on its respective company's activities related to gun safety measures and the mitigation of harm related to gun products. It asks that the report include evidence of monitoring of violent events associated with the company's products, their efforts to research and produce safer guns and gun products, and an assessment of the corporate reputational and financial risks related to gun violence in the United States.
Each resolution requires a favorable vote from 3 percent of shareholders this year, and support from 6 percent of shareholders next year and 10 percent in the following years to keep it active. Sturm, Ruger's board recommends a vote against the resolution; American Outdoor Brands has not commented related to the resolution.
Sturm, Ruger said in a filing that it does not condone violence involving the misuse of firearms, and that intentional criminal misuse is beyond its control. It said it sells to federally licensed retailers and those retailers perform required background checks, and it outlined other steps it has taken, such as the shipment of gunlocking devices with firearms.
Power to the people
Faith organizations raise powerful voices that amplify efforts to advance social justice initiatives and bring about societal change. Dianna Kielian, senior vice president of mission, theology and ethics for PeaceHealth, said faith groups have been an important part of work to end apartheid in South Africa, and efforts to improve conditions for farm and migrant workers in the United States. Other ministry leaders pointed to interfaith efforts to combat sex trafficking, reduce domestic violence and to keep violent video games out of the hands of children.
Cathy Rowan, Trinity Health's director of socially responsible investments said there's been movement recently on the issue of guns. "I do see change," she said.
Notably, students who survived the deadly assault at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have channeled their outrage into a national advocacy movement that is pressuring legislators and corporations to address gun violence.
Widespread response
That activism has achieved quick and substantive results.
Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart said they would no longer sell assault-style weapons, and along with L.L. Bean, they are prohibiting sales of guns to anyone under 21; Kroger is exiting the firearms business. Citi imposed restrictions on firearm sales applicable to new retail-sector clients; multiple car rental companies, hotels and airlines stopped offering National Rifle Association-related promotions.
About 70 Sisters of Bon Secours and Marriottsville, Md.-based Bon Secours Health System employees as well as their supporters and volunteers, joined hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at the March 24 "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington, D.C.
Sr. Hamm
Brock
Sr. Mary Beth Hamm, SSJ, coordinator of the Bon Secours congregation office of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, said the sisters are dedicated to gun safety and promoting a culture of nonviolence. The Sisters of Bon Secours and Bon Secours Health System have called on elected officials to support legislation that requires universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods for all gun purchases; a ban on civilian ownership of high-capacity weapons and magazines and to make gun trafficking a federal crime.
Roslyn Brock, vice president of advocacy and government relations for Bon Secours Health System, said, "Mourning is not enough; we have to put voices and vision behind it, and boots on the ground."
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