The second-highest ranking elected official in New York City, Public Advocate Letitia James, wrote to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday, claiming that firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. misled investors by not disclosing the shocking revelation that criminals use guns—and that this omission did not adequately disclose Ruger’s reputational and liability risks, The New York Times reports.
It’s just the latest scheme James is using to scare investors and bully gunmakers by fomenting fear over their viability. In December, she sicced the SEC on Smith & Wesson using the same tactics, and recently urged TD Bank to stop financing the gunmaker. She’s also pushed public pension funds to agree to divest from firearms industry stocks.
But they may be the ones who lose: Over the past five years, Smith & Wesson’s stock value has increased by over 600 percent, while Ruger’s has more than tripled. Any chance Letitia wants to buy-in cheap?