New York City Employees’ Retirement System’s board voted Thursday to become the first of the city’s five retirement systems to divest its holdings of some gun retailers, said Eric Sumberg, spokesman for Scott M. Stringer, the fiduciary for the five city pension funds, in an e-mail.
The $53.9 billion pension fund is the only one of the city’s five retirement systems to put forth the proposal, Mr. Sumberg said. NYCERS does not hold any gun manufacturer stocks, he added.
Information on specific gun retailers the pension fund holds or will divest has not been released.
“We have seen too much violence from guns to continue to stand idly by, and as fiduciaries we have a responsibility to protect our investments and the people of our city,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “This vote sends a strong signal across the country that government can take tangible steps to help reduce the number of guns on our streets and make progress toward ending the epidemic of gun violence.”
The city’s other retirement systems are the $60.8 billion New York City Teachers’ Retirement System, $33.4 billion New York City Police Pension Fund, $10.9 billion New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, and $4.5 billion New York City Board of Education Retirement System.
