Dear Friends,
Today marks one month since the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. If anything positive can result from the heart-wrenching tragedy that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults, it is the opportunity to renew our focus on curbing gun violence. One way we can make our streets safer for our children is by calling on New Yorkers to wipe their hands of investments in gun manufacturers that provide military-grade assault weapons and ammunition to the civilian market.
Today I announced a list of New York City's "Dirty Dozen"—the city's 12 largest corporate investors propping the gun industry. I urge these hedge funds and investment firms, which together hold more than $1.5 billion in gun company stock, to immediately divest from gun manufacturing companies. Click here to read more about this effort in today's Daily News and visit our website at http://advocate.nyc.gov/dirtydozen.
We can't go on closing our eyes to the way these investors fuel the gun industry. Through sustained consumer pressure, we can signal to these investors that the days of doing business as usual are over. Please join me in pressuring all private investors to divest from gun manufacturers that arm some of the most infamous murderers in recent history – including the one behind the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Thank you in advance for your time and help with this critical effort. Together, we can put an end to this senseless bloodshed – one gun divestment at a time.
Sincerely,
Bill de Blasio
Public Advocate for the City of New York