In what has become a yearly tradition, a group of Catholic nuns is attending Smith & Wesson’s annual shareholder’s meeting to push the company to adopt a statement on human rights and to make a public accounting of the cost of gun violence.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which includes the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary U.S.-Ontario and the Adrian Dominican Sisters, wants the company to adopt a human rights policy modeled on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The nuns purchased $2,000 worth of Smith & Wesson stock for the right to attend the meeting and put their proposal before shareholders for a vote, according to Mass Live.
Smith & Wesson’s management appears unwilling to support the nuns’ activism. Adopting the human rights policy the nuns are looking for would alienate supporters in the “firearms enthusiast community,” according to Smith & Wesson documents filed in the run-up to the vote.
SEE ALSO: Wells Fargo Stuns Anti-Gun Nuns, Floats Ruger a $40 Million Loan
The company is eager to make sure gun owners don’t see Smith & Wesson as weak on gun rights. Back in the early 2000s, under different management, the company partnered with President Bill Clinton to advance the president’s gun-control agenda. The resulting protests and boycotts nearly put the company out of business.
That’s also why Smith & Wesson has refused in the past to give in to the nuns’ demands. In 2018, the nuns successfully got shareholders to pass a resolution requiring management to write reports outlining gun safety strategies, the impact of tighter regulations, and the role of smart gun technology.
But Smith & Wesson’s parent company at the time, American Outdoor Brands, said in the subsequent report that its customers wouldn’t stand for the nuns’ proposals. They indicated that the company’s reputation wouldn’t be hurt by the criminal misuse of their products by individuals the company clearly has no ties or affiliation with (e.g. mass murders, drug dealers, gangsters), and they refused to endorse any gun control measures.
SEE ALSO: Nuns, Investors Win Fight with Smith & Wesson on ‘Gun Safety’ Report
“The Company’s reputation as a strong defender of the Second Amendment is not worth risking for a vague goal of improving the company’s reputation among non-customers or special interest groups with an anti-Second Amendment agenda,” the company’s report said.
This year, shareholders don’t have much reason to appear friendly with the gun control lobby. The so-called “Trump slump” of 2016-2019 is over. Last month, Smith & Wesson announced that its firearms business had revenue of $230 million in its most recent quarter, a figure that represents shipments of more than 584,000 guns, according to Mass Live.
Both of those numbers are new records, the 164-year-old company said.
Funny the “nuns” didn’t mention anything about the church having any plans to combat child molesters in the clergy . 😠 I’d trust my daughter with a gun before I’d trust some hypocrite with my daughter . 🤷🏼♂️🤔
I have a great deal of respect for the Nuns ,I don’t agree with what they have to say..I am a card carrying USCCA MEMBER!! That should explain how I feel…
Since Vatican II, most nuns, many priests and bishops have turned into de-facto democrats. They have destroyed much FAITH. The past and future of Catholicism is the Latin Mass and the Church Doctors.
I would strongly suggest to these left wing trolls parading about as nuns to put their efforts into raising money for church food banks, protest abortion clinics and other practices that are counter to the teachings of the Bible. I don’t recall anything in the Bible or any other Judeo-Christian teachings about “gun violence”. It’s too bad these “nuns” have time to be engaged in politics when they could be otherwise helping their parish members with more pressing moral and civil issues rather than nebulous “gun violence”. And the Church wonders why fewer people are attending Mass.
Well said.
Id like to know what church these nuns are from so we can protest the church getting into the gun biz and owning gun stocks. Then we can get banks to not do biz with that church for owning gun stocks.
If the nuns don’t like our country and our constitution, perhaps they could go somewhere else. The first amendment gives them the right to practice their religion. The Bible says judgement is in the hands of God. The nuns should be taking care of people not trying to destroy peoples’ businesses and stopping folks from protecting their families and themselves.
I would like the nuns to be held responsible for the priest and two women having a threesome on the alter. It was caught on video by a passerby.
The same logic as S&W being held responsible for the illegal use of their product.
A catholic priest is more dangerous to children than any gun.
I was going to say something along that line. Perhaps if they clean up their own house they can then worry about ours, but only if they’re invited. Otherwise, it appears S&W equipment works as it is supposed to work, unlike the Catholic Church. Then again, when the leader of your church is a communist, you have to create your own problems so that people can’t protect themselves.
When the church starts punishing pedophile priests severely for violence against children they should keep all opinions to themselves.
Fortunately, it appears that Smith & Wesson will have nun of this.
Hate to tell the well meaning (??) nuns this but…… there is no such thing as “Gun Violence”. There is only violence committed by one person upon another person, typically using whatever tool is at hand. Recent crime reporting data shows that firearms ARE NOT THE NUMBER 1 tool used in assaults. They currently run 2nd or 3rd in overall violent crimes. There is nothing wrong with the products S&W make, when used properly and lawfully. And trying to coerce a company to support an anti-American, anarchist group OVER law abiding citizens stinks to high heaven as POLITICAL ACTIVITY. WHEN DONE IN THE NAME OF THEIR VARIOUS RELIGIOUS ENTITIES, is a violation of several IRS statutes regarding such activities, and makes me think these groups tax status NEEDS SERIOUS REVIEW!
Sisters, your position is wrong and ill-informed.
AMEN
No scum catholic should tell anyone what to do.
Keyboarding this from your Ozark bunker, just after you got some gas for the generator with your EBT card?
Amy Coney Barrett is Catholic (as is Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Brett Kavanaugh..as was Antonin Scalia) and all have/will defend your gun rights, Rufus, whether or not you like her or them.
AK, classy response to a very poor post. You post was among those worth reading.
Andy, KISS my pasty white Catholic Ass. Pathetic piece of petrified white dog turd.
I wonder who’s funding the penguins? Buying stock in a company and taking a political position? Sorry sisters you lost your objectivity. They should be reaching out to communities not CEOs of a company. But it wouldn’t be the first or the last time a church or a particular religion is up for sale to highest bitter.
Maybe a bunch of Smith and Wesson owners should go to the Vatican and request that priest quit pumping alter boys full of goo and then covering it up.
I am surprised this doesn’t get more media attention. A gun company and a religious group fighting. That is two of their favorite targets
I wouldn’t label these nuns to the rest of us Catholics , there are a lot of liberal minded so called Catholics out there who’d like to push their agenda ,
Yes thank you for informing these people that most Catholics and 2nd amendment supporters !!!!!!!!!!!
A True Catholic(not a cafeteria Catholic would never be liberal!). Don’t judge all Catholics by the ones in the media.
How’s about accountability for steel edge rulers……..
The nuns are stock holders, and have a right to attend and participate at the stock holders meeting. But it shouldn’t be a news-flash if their requests are voted down….. I WONDER if they hold stock in STANLEY and want accountability for crow-bars used in B&E activities, and hammers used in attacks ?
Nuns take a vow of poverty.
If they are stock holders, even just $2,000 worth of stock, they are violating their vows of poverty.
Meanwhile, S&W should keep the lessons learned of the previous S&W owner’s mistakes and just ignore these nuns.
They may be noisy, but they do not represent even a fraction of a percent of all S&W stockholders.
Yah, yah….. What did nuns do to prevent Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc. from producing their carnage? The only way to stop totalitarians from unlimited power is to allow the citizens to defend themselves against the government (2A). 2A isn’t about hunting, folks! It’s about protecting ourselves AND the sheep like these nuns.
How many priestly rapes would have been prevented if those young boys had access to a Smith and Wesson?
I can’t stop laughing with your post …lololololololol
Those nuns should be more concerned about the pedos in their midst.
Nuns. Who own $2,000 in S&W stock. 😂😂😂😂😂
Guns for Nuns???
Do these nuns ever demand a “human rights” statement for aborted babies from the local Democrat Party HQ?
I think the Catholic Church needs to not worry about gun control until they can keep their priest’s from fucking and raping little boys and girls.
BINGO
AMEN brother!!!!!!
Lotta Fundietards on here today.
You know, there’s a reason called a cost/BENEFIT analysis. Seems to me all you’re demanding is the cost without taking into account the benefit or, even worse, accounting NO benefit AT ALL. Here’s a clue, Sisters, 400-500 MILLION guns in the US vs. 13,000 murders, the majority of those in gun controlled cities and counties. Pu THAT in your accounting. One other thing. Self defense IS a human right, whether you like it or not.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if a bunch of abused boys demanded accountability from the Catholic Church?
Agreed. The Nuns should worry more about what their illegal Priests are up to, than Constitutional Protected Smith & Wesson. Guns are a good for protecting loved ones & property, better for curbing a Tyrannical Government.
Priests are not illegal.
Pederasty is.