Nevada To End Investment In Companies That Produce Assault Weapons

Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine has announced that the state will cease all investments in companies that sell or produce assault-style weapons. After several mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, the state is taking a new stance to fight gun violence.

Conine wrote in an announcement, “Today, I directed our team to divest the State of Nevada from any investment in a business that profits from the sale or manufacture of assault-style weapons. No one policy or law will fix this crisis, but we all must do something.”

Conine revealed that the move was spurred after the shooting in Uvalde, where the 18-year-old gunman bought an assault-style weapon on the day of his birthday and used it to massacre 19 children and two adults at an elementary school.

“Companies that profit on the manufacture and sale of assault-style weapons present a market risk I’m not willing to take,” Conine continued, “The moral risk for investing in these companies is too high and is more than we are willing to bear.”

Nevada has also faced its own tragedies. In 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers in what became the deadliest mass shooting in American history. 

According to the gun-control group Everytown, on average, 151 people are killed by gun violence in Nevada every year and the state is the 17th highest when it comes to gun violence in the U.S.

The current ban comes as states take new measures on gun control after a violent month of mass shootings in the U.S.

Biden recently called on Congress to ban assault-style weapons during an evening address to the nation. So far, California and New York are making moves to enact new gun control measures.