If the Kansas City Council agrees, city pension system funds will not be invested in companies that make guns.
The resolution passed a Council Committee with one dissenting vote.
The police commission retirement board will be asked to do the same.
The Finance, Governance and Ethics Committee voted to forward the resolution after hearing Mayor Sly James argue it’s time to send a message to gun manufacturers.
James said he has proof 48 of 56 homicides this year were committed with handguns as were a large percentage of 600 killings since 2008-- “and one of the ways to get the attention of the people who manufacture the weapons is to divest pension funds from their portfolio. It’s just that simple.”
James said nothing happens in the country without money being involved. And the measure is an attempt to make social change with money.
Mayor James said the last session of the Missouri legislature had 35 bills expanding gun rights, many of them popular with the conservative Republican majority.
The Mayor said he is not afraid to offend the legislature. In the mayor’s words, "I am not anti gun but I am anti stupidity and I’m anti illogic."
Only Councilman John Sharp voted against sending the measure to the full Council.