The Students of Boston University call upon President Brown, The Board of Trustees and the Investment Committee to immediately stop investing and divest from civilian gun manufacturers.  

As mass shootings, especially in schools, are on the rise once again, it has come to the student’s attention that BU is still invested in the firearms industry. 

Context:

In January 2013, following the Sandy Hook tragedy, the Executive Committee of the Boston University Board of Trustees established a Working Group on Investment in Civilian Gun Manufacturers. The Working Group reported back to the Executive Committee the following month with two recommendations: First, that the then-proposed Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing should consider the University’s investment in manufacturers of guns for the civilian market “within the context of its work on the University’s socially responsible investment policy(ies)” once the committee was formed. Second, the University in the interim should make no new direct investments in civilian gun manufacturers.

The Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing met throughout the 2013–2014 academic year to consider a broad range of issues and arguments around investments in civilian firearms manufacturers.

In May 2014, the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing made the following recommendation:

Boston University will prohibit new and divest of any existing direct investments in civilian firearm manufacturers until, in the University’s judgment, a level of state and/or federal regulatory control over firearm sale and/or ownership is achieved that merits repeal of this policy. We believe that a legislatively created balance between the Constitution’s Second Amendment’s rights and pragmatic, effective controls would help reduce the unacceptable level of social harm created by tragedies such as the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the continued acts of gun violence since that event.

In December 2014, after considering the recommendation, the Board of Trustees Executive Committee made the decision not to divest from firearms manufacturers.

Our Demands: 

1. Prohibit new investments in the civilian firearms industry
2. Divest of any existing direct investments in civilian firearm manufacturers 
    

We call on you and every other BU student and alum to stand in solidarity to end BU’s complicity in the production and distribution of firearms and the crisis of the gun lobby. We the students hold the power to change the trajectory and the reputation of our University. Please sign this petition in support of our demands to fight for the safe future we all deserve.