What’s the closest school to you that’s experienced a shooting? Is it the school that your children have attended? Statistically speaking, a school shooting has occurred within only a few hours of your hometown, if not directly in it. This violence is unpardonable, but there’s something you can do to reduce it.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 384 mass shootings have occurred this year. Of these, about 24% happen in our nation’s schools. One just occurred an hour from my home. Statistics like these horrify. However, what’s more horrific, is that we may be inadvertently contributing to the continued rise in gun violence in America.
If you have a 401k or IRA that invests in mutual funds, up to 35% of your retirement dollars are likely funding some of the nation’s leading firearm producers and advocates. Our well-earned money helps the gun industry flourish, thus increasing the risk of, and ease of access to, more guns in the hands of mass shooters.
Historically, we’ve seen the automobile, tobacco, and pharmaceutical industries enhance their practices, sales, and actions toward increasing public safety. Individuals like us put pressure on those industries to change, divesting money from them until they did so. We have the same opportunity with the gun industry; we can make change with our voices and with our dollars.
If you don’t want to be a part of the violence, you have a right, the ability, and an easy way to make a change. You can divest your retirement dollars from the gun industry and remove our money from an industry producing the weapons that continue to slaughter school children.
To ensure that your retirement funds aren’t supporting gun violence, consider doing the following:
- Find out the name of your retirement fund.
- Contact your fund administrator.
- Tell your fund administrator to transfer any allotment of your retirement funds out of firearm-focused companies and to other companies within your mutual funds.
- Keep doing your homework and learn about new publicly traded companies that fuel the gun industry. Make sure they’re not in your retirement profile.
Currently, some of the public funds to consider avoiding include Ammo, Inc; Smith & Wesson Brands; Sturm, Ruger & Company; Vista Outdoor; National Presto Industries; American Outdoor Brands; Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation; Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings; Walmart; Dicks Sporting Goods; Field & Stream; Bass Pro Shops; Cabellas; Camping World; Gander Outdoors; Academy Sports and Outdoors; L.L. Bean; and Dunham’s Sports.
As nurses, we are 4.3 million strong in the United States. The beauty of our profession, which is the largest healthcare profession in the country, is our diversity of beliefs and political views. There are many of us on the Right and many of us on the Left. As professionals, you can find nurses across the broad political spectrum. My firm belief, however, is that none of us support school shootings and that all of us want to see a reduction in gun violence at our American schools. I implore you to consider what small step you can take to reduce the risk of violence to our nation’s children. Divest your retirement funds from the gun industry today.
Statistically speaking, on the day that you read this commentary, there will have been at least one more mass shooting.
Tim Cunningham DrPH, MSN, RN, FAAN, is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
