{"id":8359,"date":"2018-04-13T12:43:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T19:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8359"},"modified":"2018-04-13T12:44:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T19:44:10","slug":"divest-from-gun-profiteering-wells-fargo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/04\/13\/divest-from-gun-profiteering-wells-fargo\/","title":{"rendered":"Divest from gun profiteering, Wells Fargo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Steve Heilig<\/p>\n

April 10, 2018<\/span>\u00a0(SFChronicle.com)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Sen.<\/div>\n
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Photo: Josh Edelson \/ Associated Press.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks to members of the media as crowds of people participate in the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control, Saturday, March 24, 2018, in San Francisco. In a historic groundswell of youth activism, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. against gun violence Saturday, vowing to transform fear and grief into a “vote-them-out” movement and tougher laws against weapons and ammunition. (AP Photo\/Josh Edelson)<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the San Francisco \u201cMarch for Our Lives\u201d rally on March 24, speakers urged everyone to divest of any investments they might have in the gun and ammunition industries. They detailed how such investments often are buried in many retirement and pension accounts, mutual funds, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you unknowingly supporting the gun industry?\u201d one young woman pointedly asked.<\/p>\n

Why might this matter? We now know all too much of our nation\u2019s tragic and bloody gun violence problem. Beyond being reminded by recurrent mass shootings, the ongoing slaughter includes close to 100 people per day, including suicides. Gun lobbyists argue these are unavoidable, or only \u201cmental health\u201d problems, but the undeniable truth \u2014 now known despite efforts to suppress gun-related research \u2014 is that where there are more guns, there is more carnage.<\/p>\n

And that sane restrictions on gun sales, ownership, storage and use can save lives, are constitutional even under the Supreme Court ruling upholding the Second Amendment, and are supported by very strong majorities of Americans, including most gun owners.<\/p>\n

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So why the lack of progress? One of the biggest factors in maintaining the tragic status quo is the gun lobby \u2014 infamously the National Rifle Association \u2014 which kills almost any effort to further regulate guns.<\/p>\n

The NRA\u2019s work is about money \u2014 for the gun and ammo industries, and for themselves. Thus it seems decreasing their profiteering might be an effective tactic to decrease the slaughter. Responsible companies refusing to sell weapons or to advertise or accept advertising of them are good steps. Divestment could be another. Movements to remove organizational and individual investments from unhealthy and objectionable industries and practices, such as the tobacco industry and apartheid in South Africa, have gained medical and public health professional support and had positive impact.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s time to practice what we preach. I am a 35-year customer of San Francisco\u2019s Wells Fargo bank. I\u2019ve liked that my bank is based here in my home city. However, I was dismayed to read in the New York Times last month that \u201cWells Fargo is the largest financier\u00a0<\/a>in the nation of the gun industry and is the main bank for the National Rifle Association.\u201d Further research reveals that Wells Fargo has lent more than $400 million to the gun industry in the past five years \u2014 since the slaughter of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School \u2014 and has remained unapologetic about such practices.<\/p>\n

I have attempted to remain a loyal customer despite Wells Fargo\u2019s scandals of recent years, pending the new leadership\u2019s efforts to confront those. But as a public health professional and medical ethicist, I cannot overlook this link to an industry partly responsible for the ongoing gun violence in our nation.<\/p>\n

Gun violence is a public health and medical epidemic that cannot be supported, and \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d aren\u2019t nearly enough. Thus I wish to announce publicly my intent to divest all my resources from Wells Fargo, and to urge others to do likewise. Beyond talking to your own adviser and banker, there are resources online to help do this; goodbyegunstocks.com is just one.<\/p>\n

Of course, should Wells Fargo choose to publicly remedy this shameful problem soon, I will gladly reconsider. But I sincerely hope my hometown bank will do the right thing.<\/p>\n

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Steve Heilig is public health director for the San Francisco Marin Medical Society, co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and was certified as an NRA Junior Marksman as an adolescent.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Steve Heilig April 10, 2018\u00a0(SFChronicle.com) Photo: Josh Edelson \/ Associated Press.\u00a0\u00a0Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks to members of the media as crowds of people participate in the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control, Saturday, March 24, 2018, in San Francisco. In a historic groundswell of… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8359"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8361,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8359\/revisions\/8361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}