Image by Chip Vincent.

The mass shooting on August 27, 2025, at a Minneapolis Catholic church killed two children and wounded 14 children and three adults. A shocked America prompted many calls for stronger gun control laws. First Lady Melania Trump posted on X about the need for pre-emptive intervention in identifying potential shooters. Both approaches, restricted gun ownership and mental health intervention, have some validity. The problem isn’t going away!

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the United States. Gun deaths for children and teens rose fifty percent from 1,731 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021. In 2021, guns killed more than forty-five thousand Americans. In 2023, 647 people in the US were killed in mass shootings; In 2024 711 mass shooting deaths were reported. A mass shooting is defined an incident in which an attacker kills or wounds four or more people.

The United States accounts for less than five percent of the world’s population, yet has 46 percent of civilian-owned guns in the world, making the US globally the highest per capita gun ownership country. People in the US own 393 million firearms, equating to about 120.5 guns per 100 people. Therefore, the availability of firearms in the US makes for easy access to guns for people seeking to own one or multiple weapons. Many millions of firearms remain unregistered in the US as well. Efforts to prevent mass shootings in the US must include reducing the total number of guns. One way to reduce weapons would be to cut back on the two million new guns produced annually in the US.

Smith and Wesson and Sturm, Rogers & Co are the largest makers of firearms in the US. Together, they produce over 2.2 million new handguns and rifles per year, earning over $600 million in revenue. Three large investment management companies, Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street collectively invest over $600 million in Smith & Weston, and Sturn, Rogers & Co. making then the largest profiters from new weapon sales in the US.

To reduce weapons in the US towards lowering mass shootings, we must ask the

investors in gun making to suspend profits on weapons. That is an immediate first step to reducing firearms in the US. Government buybacks of privately held weapons and full enforcement of registration laws would also contribute to smaller numbers of weapons.

Our first task is to ask the multimillionaire CEOs of these three assets companies to withdraw investment funds in gun manufacturers for the greater good and human safety in America. The amounts involved are only a small portion of their total investments. The following individuals are the CEOs of the large weapons investors and can easily be reached through their companies

Blackrock, Assets under management, AUM $9.5 Trillion. Contact 800-441-7762

Laurence (Larry) D. Fink, US, CEO: BlackRock and director of PNC Financial Services Group, Innovir Laboratories (private) Member Financial Services Roundtable, Museum of Modern Art, Trustee-World Economic Forum (2019-2023) International Business Council, Business Roundtable, Director-Council on Foreign Relations, Trustee: New York University Education– UCLA (MBA, BA) Financials– Net worth $1 Billion (2022) (Forbes), BlackRock compensation $36 million (2021), BlackRock shares owned 608,271—$428.1 million (2021).

Vanguard Group, AUM $8.1 Trillion. Contact 877-662-7447

Salim Ramji, Born Tanzania, Dual US-Tanzanian citizenship, CEO Vanguard (2024) Prior Employment- Blackrock, Global I-shares and Index Investing, McKinsey and Company, Cliffard Caance Law, London Hong Kong, **Education-**BA University Toronto, MA Law Cambridge University, Financials- Vanguard salary $26 million, Net worth $20 million+.

State Street Corporation, AUM $4.02 Trillion. Contact 617-786-3000

Ronald P. O’Hanley, US CB– CEO/Chair: State Street, Director: Unum Group Member World Economic Forum, (2023) Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Federal Reserve’s Federal Advisory Council, The Boston Foundation, The Ireland Funds, IYRS School of Technology and Trades, Syracuse University, Education– Harvard Business School (MBA), Syracuse University (BA) F–  State Street Compensation $14 million (2021); Unum Group Compensation $290,001 (2021); net worth 2022: $25.9 million.

Ending mass shootings in the US means reducing the number of guns available and making strong efforts by governments to enforce registration laws. Doing this combined with increased mental health efforts will save lives from mass shootings. We must insist that the CEOs of the largest investment management companies cease all investment in new gun manufacturing. Many thousands of us must ask them to quit these dangerous investments.

The post Ending Mass Shootings Requires Fewer Guns appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

From CounterPunch.org via this RSS feed