{"id":112890,"date":"2017-10-04T14:17:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T18:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?p=112890"},"modified":"2024-02-23T16:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T21:33:32","slug":"there-is-something-we-can-do","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2017\/there-is-something-we-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"There Is Something We Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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October 4, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"thumbnail-gun-on-money\"Viewpoint articles are written by members of the SPH community from a wide diversity of perspectives. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University or the School of Public Health. We aspire to a culture where\u00a0all can express views in a context of civility and respect. Our guidance on the values that guide our commitment can be found at\u00a0Revisiting the Principles of Free and Inclusive Academic Speech<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even before the details are disclosed, we knew that the horrific carnage in Las Vegas was made possible by a large personal cache of weapons that should only be available to soldiers on the battlefield. Yet American gun manufacturers freely sell these weapons. And they contribute freely to the National Rifle Association, which has been successful in blocking limited gun control legislation in Congress, even steps which most Americans individually support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"think-teach-do(red)-icon-200x200\"<\/a>So what we can do? We can follow the money. Remington Outdoor Company<\/a> is a familiar name, a conglomerate that manufactures a wide range of guns and ammunition with brand names including Remington, Marlin, and Bushmaster. It sells semi-automatic weapons based on the Bushmaster design. Although the ownership is opaque, Remington is descended from the Freedom Group, the arms industry holding group created by New York-based Cerberus Capital. In August 21, 2017, Remington named a new executive chairman of the board<\/a>, James Geisler, who has worked with Cerberus Operations and Advisory Company since 2014.<\/p>\n

Guess what else Cerberus Capital controls? Star Market and Shaw\u2019s Supermarkets, for two<\/a>. And\u00a0Steward Health Care<\/a>\u2014a private hospital firm that started in Massachusetts, and is now acquiring hospitals throughout the country.<\/p>\n

After the Newtown massacre, gun sales took off, with \u201cgun enthusiasts\u201d afraid that Congress might finally regulate some aspects of the gun industry, particularly the sale of automatic or semi-automatic weapons like the Bushmaster rifle used to slay the Newtown children and their teachers. The California State Teachers Retirement System threatened to pull its money from Cerberus Capital unless it disposed of its firearms division, the Freedom Group. Cerberus indicated a willingness to sell, and ultimately found a way to enable the California Retirement System to withdraw its money from the Freedom Group<\/a>. But the firearms business, now renamed after one of its constituent brands, Remington, was never sold.<\/p>\n

At first, a spike in sales after Newtown led to greater profits for gun manufacturers. More recently, gun sales fell, in part because \u201cgun enthusiasts\u201d felt more confident that Donald Trump would not support gun control legislation. This whole tale is well told in a November 2016 article by Steven Witt in New York Magazine<\/em><\/a>. With the Las Vegas tragedy, we will likely find the small fraction of American gun owners who own high-powered weapons stocking up on even more firepower, once again afraid that Congress will do something. In 2016, 3 percent of American gun owners owned half the guns in the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here we are again, with a casualty toll as bad as a bad day for American forces in Vietnam. If the NRA fought gun control legislation after Newtown, it is unlikely to hold back on its opposition after Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

So what can we do? Connect the dots. We can hit those who control Remington where it hurts, by denting the profits of Cerberus\u2019 other holdings. Get your health care in a hospital not<\/em>\u00a0owned by Steward Health Care. Don\u2019t shop at Star and Shaw\u2019s. Tell those stores why you are taking your trade elsewhere. Use your social networks\u2014your church, your Facebook friends, your colleagues and co-workers\u2014and tell them about Cerberus Capital. Tell them why you are buying your deli meats and baby carrots elsewhere. Let\u2019s make clear to the folks with the money that we don\u2019t want assault weapons sold in our country. Tell them that we don\u2019t want to see advertisements that encourage \u201cgun enthusiasts\u201d to arm themselves for Armageddon. Make it clear that we will hurt the Cerberus bottom line, unless and until they publicly disavow support of the NRA and stop selling assault weapons and accessories that facilitate mass killings. Follow the money and do something.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to respond to the latest mass shooting? By boycotting Cerberus Capital, controller of gun manufacturer Remington and holder of companies like Star Market and Shaw’s. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7174,"featured_media":112946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"Viewpoint"},"tags":[2537,1866,1751],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3531,3545],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/112890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112890"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/112890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237440,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/112890\/revisions\/237440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=112890"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=112890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}