As part of the national stampede of politically-correct moves in response to the Sandy Hook tragedy, the California teachers pension system very publicly divested from a hedge fund that owns the company that makes the so-called “assault rifle” AR-15.
But according to the pension system’s website, it continues to own nearly $2 million in Smith + Wesson stock – $1,988,000 to be exact.
The gunslingers at Smith + Wesson are perhaps best known for making the .44 Magnum, “the most powerful handgun in the world…it could blow your head clean off,” in the words of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movie character.
Statistics show far more people die from handguns than so-called “assault” weapons, and the vast majority of those are suicides.
According to GunPolicy.org, 32,163 people in the United States were killed with guns in 2011. Of those, 6,220 were handgun homicides and a further 4,603 were handgun suicides. Another 15,163 were suicides committed with some other type of guns.
Assuming every other person was killed by an AR-15 (which is obviously not true), they would still be outnumbered by handgun deaths. Does CalSTRS support handgun-assisted suicide?
This is not to suggest the pension system, known as CalSTRS, should divest from Smith + Wesson, a great American company. It is merely to point out the hypocrisy of politically-correct financial maneuvers that really accomplish nothing.