If you are looking for signs that things have changed since Newtown, here is a big sign:

The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday that it would sell its investment in the gunmaker Freedom Group in response to the school shootings last week in Connecticut.
Cerberus acquired Bushmaster — the manufacturer of the rifle used by the gunman in the Newtown attacks that killed 27 people, including 20 schoolchildren — in 2006…

“It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level,” Cerberus said in a news release.

Read the whole thing. Perhaps this piece by former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had something to do with the move?

While Cerberus, whose array of holdings is vast, is generally immune to public pressure and the opprobrium of trafficking in products that while legal may be marketed in a loathsome way, Cerberus would not be immune to pressure brought by its own investors… It is time for those of us on the “outside” to find out who those investors are, so that we can prod them to act. Every student at a university should ask the university if it is invested in Cerberus. Every member of a union should ask their pension-fund managers if they are invested. Information is the key first step. From there, action will quickly follow.

Cerberus, the New York Times notes, is “named after the three-headed dog of Greek myth that guarded the gates of Hades.”

Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this,...

4 replies on “Bushmaster’s Wall Street Owners Now Want to Get Rid of the Company”

  3. Don’t let this story get too far into your heads; Bushmaster isn’t exactly on the cutting edge of weapon manufacturing. I’m sure their last couple years have been exceptionally good for Bushmaster, but in the same time, at least 100 new firearm manufactures have open in the United States who are creating much more innovative products.

    I think a comparative analogy is that Bushmaster is to the gun world like Widmer is to Portland beers. The loss of Widmer isn’t going to effect the overall scheme of things, and the micro makers are probably going to be thrilled by the competitive absence. A person can divest from Bushmaster easily, but the competitive market is still thriving. The last couple years have been the best years for firearm manufactures ever in the United States, and the ingenuity and market demand is clearly out there, and that won’t change.

    If only Democrats could invest their time into something meaningful, like financial regulation reforms, that could proactively prevent the economic conditions that drive people crazy…. Yet, this is where their attention is.

    Or: if you wanted to truly affect the firearms market, you could simply have the federal government stop subsidizing their sales by buying up all the ammo and rifles from Bushmaster. Billions are being poured into the gun industry by the Federal Government. Ending the wars would fix this.

  4. Back in March DHS ordered 750 million rounds of hollow point ammunition. Then it turned around and ordered an additional 750 million rounds of miscellaneous bullets. That’s enough ammo to empty five rounds into the body of every American citizen. Our military only expended 70 million rounds per year in the war in Iraq.

    …Now don’t you feel safer?

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