After the Parkland school shooting, the activists, including the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the Catholic Health Initiatives network of clinics, bought stock in the American Outdoor Brands Corporation (AOBC), which owns Smith & Wesson. They did the same with Sturm, Ruger, the other major publicly traded gun company. The activists then used their status as shareholders to ask fellow investors to join them in demanding that the gunmakers publicly report on public safety risks caused by their products.
Ruger’s shareholders were first to consider the nuns’ proposal at their company’s annual meeting in May. The initiative passed with 69 percent of the vote. It was an unprecedented victory for the activists: no gun company had ever been forced by its shareholders to consider the public safety implications of its products.
American Outdoor Brands is the next test for the activists’ campaign. They have submitted a nearly identical motion to be voted on at the company’s shareholder meeting on September 25.
The company officially acknowledged the proposal in an August 17th filing, in which the board of directors urged other shareholders to oppose the activists’ proposal. The board argued that producing such a report would not reduce gun violence, and was redundant because the company already cooperates with federal law enforcement and complies with regulatory requirements that acknowledge the risk associated with firearms.
The nuns and their allies have now pushed back, saying that they don’t believe a report alone would reduce shootings and injuries: instead, they are asking the company to engage in basic responsible corporate governance. As they note, AOBC has become dependent on so-called fear-based sales that spike in response to anticipation of potential new gun control laws that rarely actually materialize. But in the post-Parkland school shooting moment, enthusiastic gun control activists have managed to push through real reforms ‐ 55 new state gun laws have passed since the killings.
The Catholic allies have also pressured financial firms to impose conditions on the gun companies they work with.
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