PA Bill Number: HB1472
Title: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contributions ...
Description: In primary and election expenses, further providing for reporting by candidate and political committees and other persons and for late contrib ...
Last Action: Referred to STATE GOVERNMENT
Last Action Date: Apr 22, 2024
Pittsburgh Mayor Wants Pension Fund To Divest Of Gun Stocks :: 06/09/2019
The purpose of a pension fund is to, ultimately, invest money so that retirees have sufficient funds to enjoy the rest of their days. They’re not supposed to be political arms or used to try and exert financial pressure on certain industries.
It seems that no one told Pittsburgh’s anti-gun mayor about that part.
In a letter dated May 31, Peduto asked the Board Members of the Comprehensive Municipal Pension Trust fund to divest from firearms and ammunitions companies in the city’s investment fund valued at about $463 million.
America’s First Freedom has documented efforts by politicians and companies to erode Second Amendment rights by exerting financial pressure on pensions and institutional investments. At the same time, city mayors continue to advocate anti-gun political opinions by enforcing ordinances targeting law-abiding gun owners and their businesses. Peduto is a notable figure in the movement.
A recent study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College suggests “social investing” may not be beneficial overall to the health of public pension funds, as Peduto has requested of the pension trust board to consider doing. Pittsburgh carry advocates have protested against the mayor’s political advocacy.
Look, it’s one thing for an individual or a private group to engage in social investing. Frankly, I think pro-gun investors should band together and do the same thing. Imagine how Dick’s Sporting Goods or Levi Strauss would change their tune if their stockholders demanded it? It would also be incredibly hard for banks to ignore stockholder voices asking why profitable business relationships were being severed with companies in full compliance with the law.
So-called “social investing” is all fine and well. It’s a free country.
But Peduto is talking about doing this with other people’s money. He’s willing to gamble with that pension fund money, hoping it’ll be enough to punish gun companies for existing.
What’s worse, he’s not even considering that some of the people who depend on that pension fund may be pro-gun. If he has thought about it, then he doesn’t care.
Peduto has become the worst kind of gun grabber. Not only is he pushing for disarming private citizens, but he’s willing to risk people’s retirement to advance his ideologically-driven agenda. There’s no evidence of rational thought in any of this.
I hope that the people of Pittsburg come to their senses and vote this individual out of office.
At this point, It’s only somewhat related to the Second Amendment. Peduto doesn’t believe in it as I do. So be it. That’s no excuse to play political games with people’s retirement. People work for the city, sticking through all the piddly crap that a bureaucracy can manufacture, all based on the promise of a secure retirement.
Peduto is jeopardizing that all because of his war against an industry he doesn’t like. It doesn’t matter how profitable that industry is or how it may benefit those retirees. Nope. He doesn’t like them, so he wants to punish them. He doesn’t care who he hurts in the process.
When you think about it, that’s about par for the course for gun grabbers like him anyway, so none of this should be surprising.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/06/07/pittsburgh-mayor-wants-pension-fund-divest-gun-stocks/
