The massive city teachers pension fund responded to the horrors of the Newtown massacre by dumping all its stock in guns and ammo makers — but Mayor Bloomberg surprisingly opposed the move.
Bloomberg is one of the nation’s most outspoken critics of the gun industry. As the founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, he’s become a fixture on national news shows and a leading campaigner for sweeping gun control measures that he says will make everyone safer.
But when the Teachers Retirement System board voted to pull $13.5 million in investments it made in companies like Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co., Bloomberg’s rep on the pension board cast the lone “no” vote.
Raymond Sarola, Bloomberg’s emissary to the board, said the mayor doesn’t believe in mixing politics and finance.
“Pension decisions should rarely, if ever, be based on other criteria except what’s best for pensioners, which should benefit taxpayers as well,” Sarola said in a statement Friday.
City Controller John Liu and teachers union president Michael Mulgrew control the other four reps on the pension board and both blasted the mayor for his no vote.
“This is just being two-faced,” Liu said. “For Mayor Bloomberg to pound his fist on national talk shows against guns, and then to insist on supporting the business model of gun manufacturers.”
The $46.6 billion teachers pension fund is the largest major pension fund to pull its gun investments since Newtown, though other large funds have started the process.
Mulgrew said educators had to make sure guns were not part of their holdings.
“I don’t understand how the mayor, who wants to be characterized as a national leader on gun control, has allowed his people to vote against divesting from gun manufacturers,” Mulgrew said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
With Glenn Blain and Kristen A. Lee
tmoor@nydailynews.com
