Gun violence in America feels like an endless cycle of problems and abuse. Many people feel at a loss to know how to take action to reduce gun violence that will offer tangible results. After all, we know all too well that thoughts and prayers don’t save lives.
One intriguing solution some people are testing out? Buying into the gun companies themselves. Why? So they can bring their voices directly to the table and advocate for stricter gun control and gun safety laws.
For example, the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts decided to buy 200 shares of stock in American Outdoor Brands. The company is the Springfield, Massachusetts-based parent company of Smith & Wesson. The diocese decided this via vote last week. (It has not yet voted to buy stock in any other gunmakers).
Why 200? There was a definite strategy here: It’s the minimum amount of shares you need to buy in order to place initiative questions on the ballot presented at the shareholders annual meeting. And this is exactly where they hope to make some changes.
Bishop Douglas J. Fisher of the diocese said that the purchase of the shares was done “[s]o that we might have a voice at the table and work with some other church groups to see what we can do to lessen the public health crisis of gun violence. It’s born out of frustration. ...The approach is not to put the company out of business, not to abolish the Second Amendment.”
The changes the diocese wants to see include universal background checks; technology that would disable a gun if it is held by anyone but the licensed owner; and, perhaps the biggest for its area, to put an end to Smith & Wesson making guns that are actually illegal to possess in the state. (Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun laws in the country).
Previously, the national Episcopal Church has tried to influence policy by not buying certain stocks: For example, they've avoided purchasing stock in for-profit prisons. For now, it appears that it is not buying stocks in other gunmakers.
Another group that is using its buying power to make a change? A national coalition of Catholic nuns is doing the same exact thing at American Outdoor Brands and Sturm Ruger.
We’re in an age where mass shootings are regularly in the news. The acts of violence feel senseless and, at times, surreal. We’ve lost people in a synagogue, elementary schools, high schools, movie theaters, nightclubs, and more. This doesn’t even include people lost to domestic and intimate-partner violence. Buying stock into the very companies that produce the guns used in these attacks is a curious idea, but at the very least, it’s more tangible action than more thoughts and prayers.