What is to come of gun control in 2019

Public+protest+demanding+protection+for+students+not+guns.

Public protest demanding protection for students not guns.

Yulisa Loarca, Social Media Manager

New year, new me? New politics? Let’s have a look into a crystal ball, as the year comes to an end we begin to wonder what the new year will bring. New tech, memes or foods no one knows for sure but most importantly what will 2019 bring for politics? As for 2018, we learned to cope with trauma as we introduced our new president, we learned about gun control, and we learned to mourn as we said goodbye to former President George HW Bush.

One of the biggest problems as we fly into the new year is our current struggle on gun control and how it affects our education. Many believe that it is our fundamental right to own fire weapons as it’s embedded into our third amendment while others believe it’s useless overall. But how does gun control affect our education? Teachers across the country have revealed that they pay into a retirement fund that invests in gun companies therefore making stricter gun laws affect teachers salary which affects if they teach or not.

As learned earlier in 2018, pension funds managed for public school teachers in at least a dozen U.S. states, including New York and California, own stocks issued by the makers of firearms. Some states such as Florida own shares of American Outdoor Brands Corp., the company previously known as Smith & Wesson that manufactured the semi automatic AR-15 used in the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The type of assault rifle has been the weapon of choice in America’s mass shootings.

The financial stakes held by teacher pension funds in gun companies, like those of other equities, each represent only a sliver of the multibillion-dollar state retirement systems’ investments, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

On February 14, 2018, a school shooting erupted where 17 people were shot dead. Due to this incident the public was outraged to find out that their teachers pay into the retirement fund that has invested into multiple gun companies. As recorded in previous interviews, Joanne McCall, president of the FEA, an affiliate of the National Education Association stated, “I am sure that most of Florida’s public school employees are as sickened as I am to learn that the state has invested some of our pension fund holdings in the maker of the AR-15…Surely there are better places for the state to invest its public employee retirement money than in companies that make products that harm our children.”

Many concerned parents and families have heard about this news and have filed reports regarding the school system and their students safety. Many fear that the association between teacher fundings and gun companies is absurd while other states continue to invest into these companies. For example, Washington state’s pension funds invest about $5.3 million in stocks of ammunition and gun manufacturers.

As school shootings become more and more common everyday the public continues to question the states and their authority as they feel that their students are at a greater risk everyday. As the new year continues we wonder what this will mean in the future, will the states end their investments with these gun companies or will they continue? Who’s to say whether or not gun control is needed? No one knows really but we hope that the future will bring nothing more than positivity.