FAIL. Despite Chicago Mayor’s Request – Mutual Funds Continue Their Investment in Gun Companies

It looks like it didn’t work.

The Godfather’s political pressure hasn’t persuaded investors to rearrange their portfolios.

Guns.com reported:

A few weeks ago Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wrote letters to several mutual funds asking them to pressure gun companies into embracing newly proposed gun laws, and as it turns out the political pressure hasn’t persuaded the investors to alter their portfolios.

In order to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and regulations investors that hold a significant percentage of stock in a publicly traded company has to report just how much they own. A handful of the mutual funds contacted by Emanuel — Allianz, BlackRock, Vanguard, and Capital World Investments — submitted those forms and reported last week that they would retain ownership of Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger and Company.

According to the documents filed:

• Allianz reportedly owns 7.1 percent of Ruger
• Capital World Investments owns 6.5 percent of Ruger
• Vanguard reportedly owns 7.14 percent of Ruger, and 7.46 percent of Smith & Wesson
• BlackRock reportedly owns 7.5 percent of Ruger, and 5.31 percent of Smith & Wesson

In addition to those investors singled out by the Chicago Mayor, a handful of other mutual funds also reported ownership of Ruger and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) stocks.

This is undoubtedly good news for the gun companies as several investors running pension plans and whatnot have decided not to dump most or all gun-related enterprises.