NYC Mayor Wants Police Pension to Drop Gun Investments

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday urged the city’s Police Pension Fund to divest from all assets related to gun and ammo manufacturing.

The city’s Teachers’ Retirement System and its general Employees’ Retirement System have divested from gun holdings in recent years.

Gun holdings make up approximately 0.0001% of the fund’s portfolio, according to Pension360 calculations. But the move to divest, if approved by the board, is a symbolic one.

From Capital New York:

“After the countless tragedies involving assault weapons, public outcry over mass shootings and legislative proposals to outlaw assault weapons, we should not be investing in companies that manufacture and market assault weapons to civilians – ever,” de Blasio said in a statement, adding, “Those weapons belong in the hands of the military and law enforcement only.”

In a release, de Blasio’s office said the resolution requests the pension fund’s Bureau of Asset Management and General Consultant perform an analysis on the fund’s investments in companies that “manufacture assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.”

The resolution, which the board is expected to vote on sometime within the next couple of months, would also require the Bureau of Asset Management and Police Pension Fund’s general consultant to write a report for the board’s trustees showing options for how the fund could get rid of the investments without forgoing its fiduciary obligations to its shareholders.

De Blasio will send similar resolutions to the Fire Department’s pension fund and the Board of Education Retirement System sometime in the next several weeks, City Hall said.

The city’s Police Pension Fund currently holds about $4.4 million worth of gun-related assets. It’s overall portfolio totals $33 billion.

Photo by Thomas Hawk via Flickr CC License