Posted on 12/18/2012 9:44:44 AM PST by kristinn
Following pressure from a major investor, U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is selling gunmaker Freedom Group, whose Bushmaster AR-15 rifle was used in the Connecticut school massacre last week.
The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus in the wake of Friday's shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School and then took his own life.
Before going to the school, the gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead his mother in the home they shared, according to law enforcement officials.
In addition to Cerberus, some gun retailers also took steps.
SNIP
CalSTRS, the second-largest pension fund in the United States, had invested $751.4 million with Cerberus by the end of March 2012, according to its website.
Cerberus said on Tuesday it would hire a financial adviser to sell its interests in Freedom Group and return the proceeds to investors.
The private equity firm expressed shock and grief at the killings in Newtown but added that Freedom Group was not responsible.
"We do not believe that Freedom Group or any single company or individual can prevent senseless violence or the illegal use or procurement of firearms and ammunition," it said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Eliot Spitzer, the former New York Governor, wants pension funds to exit their investment in Cerberus Capital Management, because of the firm’s connection to gun manufacturer Bushmaster.
New York-based Cerberus, which has more than $20 billion in assets, owns the Freedom Group, which calls itself the largest maker of commercial firearms and ammunition. Madison, N.C.-based Freedom owns Bushmaster, which makes the rifle used by Adam Lanza in the recent Connecticut massacre. (Spitzer calls it “the weapon that brought evil to Newtown.”) Freedom also owns Remington Arms Co., which is known for equipping U.S. soldiers, as well as Marlin Firearms Co., another rifle-maker.
Spitzer, in the Slate article, says it’s time to expose which pension funds have put money into Cerberus and pressure them to exit. Or, he wants Cerberus to alter how the gun industry operates. The former governor says it’s “ironic” that it was “tougher to rent a car from Alamo” when it was a Cerberus portfolio company than to buy a semi-automatic. “If a major union pension fund or university endowment has an investment with Cerberus, it surely doesn’t want to be tarred as a passive owner of the company that sells semi-automatic weapons with no background checks or concern for the use of the weapons,” Spitzer writes.
Ownership, Spitzer says, comes with both responsibility and power. “It is time for every comptroller and pension fund manager with an investment in Cerberus to use that power,” he says.
Spitzer called on those of us “on the outside” to identify Cerberus’s investors and make them act. The Term Sheet’s Dan Primack reports that CalSTRS committed to invest $500 million into a $7.5 billion Cerberus fund and could effectively own 6.67% stake in Freedom. CalSTRS is reviewing its investment in Cerberus in light of the Newtown school shooting,...SNIP
redgolum:
“Bushmaster is done as a brand. For that matter, most AR type rifles may be banned soon..”
Celerity:
“What I read from this decision : The fix is in. The AR15 is gone. There is no due process. It’s been phoned in.
The AR15 has already been banned. Prepare, those who need to only have a matter of days now.”
I believe you are both right.
Looks like this is the “price”, the “bargaining chip” the Republicans will consent to in order to get the ‘rats off their backs on this issue in view of current events.
- The AR-15 and all variants will be banned from sale.
- Current owners may get to keep theirs, but will probably be banned from selling them or passing them to heirs.
- Folks who don’t own one will be banned from possessing one, period. They won’t even be able to buy (or be given or inherit) an older one.
- ALL magazines to fit AR-15’s, regardless of capacities, will be banned from sales or transfers.
- Probably restrictions on .223 ammo, too.
The Bushmaster (AR-15) was the weapon of choice in this incident. To make it “go away” will be the sacrifice the Pubbies offer, in exchange for leaving everything else alone.
Don’t like it (as I’m sure you don’t), but that’s what I see coming down the pike...
You should post a list of their user names, just as an FYI.
What an opportunity for Freedom Group to go public. They would sell out an IPO in a heartbeat. Just look at how Ruger and S&W stocks have performed. I’d buy it.
They’ll out themselves soon enough!
Especially if the yelping dog press keeps the drumbeat going.
What car did Adam Lanza use to drive over to the school, because using the logic of this article, that car manufacturer must also be boycotted.
Flash forward ten or fifteen years to when we’re all in the Theresa Ghilarducci National Pension Plan where the Federal Government controls the funds and is the de-facto largest shareholder in any public company.
NOW you can see why they want to do that.
sad indeed..
some are content to live in a ‘secure’ state and accept the state of affairs and the limitations inherent..
in the stone age, they’d have taken away your club and spear.. these days , your login and firepiece.
Say goodbye to your pensions, you RAT hacks.
Cerberus is John Snow’s outfit-—the old treasury secretary. Same guys who nearly sunk Chrysler. They have a record of wading in to companies and wadding them up. They have pieces of action in other gun makers also and have ridden the market up in their stocks. They don’t have the stomach to hang around for a long fight so you can expect them to take their money and run.
They can have my club, upside their pea brained skulls.
“...They have a new refrain, and that it is ‘silly’ or ‘glib’ to point out the fact that if someone was armed, crazed gunmen would be less likely to kill.”
Gentlemen, I say ye...Nick Meli.
Clakamas mall
Drew down on the shooter, did NOT take the shot (see Col. Cooper’s 4th rule) but made his presence known
Next shot the shooter took was into himself after running into a cross hall or stair well (not certain).
Point is, an armed citizen stopped any more innocents from being killed.
These kinds of things seldom get reported to the Police and those that do are usually only seen in the NRA magazines or here among the brethren.
Exactly.
And the gun grabbers ignore that.
Did they sell their GM stock after Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar rammed a crowd with his Jeep Grand Cherokee? that would make just as much sense.
That does not mean that Lanza's .223 Bushmaster was not found in his car.
That only means that all victim's were shot with .223 caliber ordnance.
Ballistics tests...if any are being done...will determine which rifle fired the rounds recovered at the scene.
Maybe yes, maybe no, but now is not the time to lie down and give up.
Make ‘em fight for every inch of ground.
“What car did Adam Lanza use to drive over to the school, because using the logic of this article, that car manufacturer must also be boycotted.”
It appears Adam drove a black Honda Civic, the auto of choice for mass killers!
That only means that all victim's were shot with .223 caliber ordnance.
Ballistics tests...if any are being done...will determine which rifle fired the rounds recovered at the scene.
All true. No arguments from me. I was just reporting that they were killed with .223 ammo, which would have ruled out the Glock and Sig Saur handguns.
Saur - Sauer
I’ve seen some not so kosher medical examiners that would say whatever they were told to say.
It could be that the victims all died from pistol rounds, but someone with an agenda told him to claim .223 rounds.
We won’t know for awhile.
Unless video of the perp in the school is known somewhere showing what he had in his hands.
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