The Next Installment Of The War Between Amalgamated Bank And Ruger
BY Herschel Smith6 years, 6 months ago
CNBC:
Another community group, Majority Action, is organizing retail investors to push big fund companies like BlackRock and Vanguard, Sturm Ruger’s biggest shareholders, to assert their voting power. The group organized about six weeks ago, seeing now as a crucial moment for changing the gun industry.
“We were looking at how you enable everyday investors to access the levers of power when it comes to holding companies accountable,” said James Rucker, its co-founder, who is on the board of directors of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
But even before these recent demands, controversy was certain to erupt at Sturm Ruger’s meeting, scheduled to take place May 9 at a resort in Arizona thousands of miles from its Connecticut headquarters. The company has a factory in the area.
Wednesday’s vote will be the first test this year of a proposal by a faith-based shareholder group urging the nation’s gun industry to act after recent extreme examples of gun violence.
Specifically, that proposal, backed by the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, asks gun makers like Sturm Ruger to prepare a report about the financial and reputational risks associated with their business. The coalition plans to introduce a similar proposal on the proxy of American Outdoor Brands, which typically holds its meetings in the fall.
Two major shareholder voting advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, have thrown their support behind the coalition’s proposal, Sturm Ruger’s board, on the other hand, is advising shareholders to vote against it. “We believe that firearms safety is a laudable and appropriate goal,” it said in the proxy. “However, we also believe that adequate safety practices and procedures are available.”
BlackRock said in a note to clients in March that it is time to take action on gun violence, adding it could use its position as a large shareholder to vote against boards and management and back shareholder proposals management doesn’t like. But it won’t comment about how it plans to vote its 2.8 million shares next week.
Several companies connected to the gun industry have changed their policies in recent weeks in response to the upswell of protests after a shooting in a Florida high school in February left 17 people dead. Major retailers such as Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods put limits on gun sales, and banks like Citigroup said it would restrict gun sales by business partners.
Fund managers like BlackRock and State Street said they would start a dialogue with gun makers about what they are doing to promote safety. BlackRock has even rolled out new funds that specifically remove stocks of gun makers and sellers.
Amalgamated wants the gun maker to publicly endorse universal background checks, funding for government to to crack down on illegal distribution, and funding for government research into gun safety and public health. They also want a commitment to responsible distribution contracts, monitoring of distribution chains and investments in gun safety technology and commercialization.
Froman, 68, is a lawyer and long-time gun industry supporter. The Southern Poverty Law Center found her name in a 2014 member directory of a secretive ultra-conservative group called the Council for National Policy. Tax forms from 2015 and 2016 filed by that organization list her as treasurer.
The year she became president of the NRA, the gun lobby won a crucial legal battle in the form of a new law limiting liability claims against gun makers. That same year, a donor program for the NRA launched and, as reported by Bloomberg in 2012, took in nearly $15 million from gun-related companies.
Froman has pointed to Smith & Wesson’s decision in 2000 to voluntarily comply with certain gun safety measures as its downfall. Grassroots gun supporters forced the company into bankruptcy after it made that “deal with the devil,” she has said.
“The grass roots is a powerful force that the government can’t control and can’t fight,” she said in a speech in 2011 to a group that supports knife ownership. “Just look at what’s happened with the rise of the Tea Party movement. Most of the battles that NRA has won have been won by sheer political power.”
Oh, okay. Things make a little more sense now. The Southern Preposterous Lie Center is after her, and for very good reason. She believes that S&W made a “deal with the devil.” Because they did, and she’s right. She stands in the way of forcing Ruger to make that same sort of deal, although to be quite honest, I think the other board members as well as 100% of Ruger employees see things the same way she does.
The article is lacking in detail just like all preceding articles on this – we still don’t learn the relative shareholding power of these gun controller forces within Ruger stock. But it sure will be interesting to follow this through and see how well or poorly the controllers do with this effort.
Prior: Amalgamated Bank Pressures Ruger To Support Gun Control Measures
On May 3, 2018 at 9:03 am, Fred said:
Generally, the major Money Center banks, investment houses, and other financial institutions own the single largest stake in almost every public company through ownership of the company’s stock shares. It’s an often effective route to pressure a company’s board by forcing change through institutional shareholders such as Blackrock and Citi Bank. And sometimes it’s not.
But I wanted talk about this “faith-based shareholder group”.
It starts in your own house first! Are these the same “faith-based” people who have the same rate of abortions as the larger whole of Americans? Are these the same “faith-based” people who have the same rate of divorce inside the church as out. Are these the same “faith-based” people who watch porn at the same rate as those not in regular attendance at a church? Is it those “faith-based” people?
What is their faith in, government? Corporatism? satanism? Are they mad about all the Negroes being shot in Chiraq, or is it just concern for the upper middle class whites in Lakeland? Ya know, if’n the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being preached in America, evil would be on the retreat. This a biblical and historical fact.
On May 3, 2018 at 11:09 am, Bill Robbins said:
There’s a big story here, and Herschel is onto it.
Everyone here should be talking-up the directors of their state and local firearms advocacy organizations to encourage member push-back against corporate “economic warfare.” The battle is no longer just in Congress and in state legislatures. The battle is on main street, in bank branches, retailers, and the nicely furnished offices of your local investment advisors.
Go look the enemy right in the face and tell them what you think about the abusive market power of their employers and business partners at Bank of America, Citigroup, BlackRock, Amalgamated, Dick’s…and the list is growing.
On May 3, 2018 at 12:15 pm, Gryphon said:
Another relevant Article – https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-02/new-york-weaponizes-regulatory-powers-against-nra
Commie Politician urging Financial Warfare against Gun Businesses.
So, it’s O.K. to Discriminate against people who Assert their Rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.
On May 3, 2018 at 1:09 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Bill,
We are receiving enfilade fire. We’ve been outflanked. There are multiple fronts in this war. Firearms owners are stolid and slow.
On May 3, 2018 at 7:19 pm, soapweed said:
“stolid and slow” Yup, I……….are……….one…….