‘Simply Unacceptable’: Executives Demand Senate Action on Gun Violence
“Doing nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable,” the corporate chiefs urged senators in a letter.
In
a direct and urgent call to address gun violence in America, the chief
executives of some of the nation’s best-known companies sent a letter to
Senate leaders on Thursday, urging an expansion of background checks to
all firearms sales and stronger “red flag” laws.
“Doing
nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and
it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety,” the heads
of nearly 150 companies, including Levi Strauss, Twitter and Uber, say in the letter, which was shared with The New York Times.
The
letter — which urges the Republican-controlled Senate to enact bills
already introduced in the Democrat-led House of Representatives — is the
most concerted effort by the business community to enter the gun
debate, one of the most polarizing issues in the nation and one that was
long considered off limits.
Senate Reaction
A Democrat called the executives’ letter part of a “groundswell.” A Republican called it meddling.
The
debate and the decision to sign — or not sign — are a case study in how
chief executives must weigh their own views and the political risks to
their businesses.
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“To
a certain extent, these C.E.O.s are putting their businesses on the
line here, given how politically charged this is,” said Chip Bergh,
chief executive of Levi Strauss, a company whose denim jeans have long
been a symbol of America. Mr. Bergh spent the last several days trying
to cajole his peers into joining him and gun control advocates like
Everytown, which is funded in part by Michael Bloomberg. “Business
leaders are not afraid to get engaged now,” he added. “C.E.O.s are wired
to take action on things that are going to impact their business and
gun violence is impacting everybody’s business now.”
Mr.
Bergh said he was encouraged by the conversations. “The tide is
turning,” he said, citing a spate of recent polls that show a majority
of Americans in both parties support background checks and red flag
laws. “People were starting to be much more open-minded,” he said, even
when the discussion didn’t conclude with a signature.
Yet
he is also bracing for a backlash. “This has been spun by the N.R.A. as
we’re trying to repeal the Second Amendment,” Mr. Bergh said. “Nothing
is further from the truth.”
The
movement has gained momentum since last month, when a shooting at a
Walmart store in El Paso killed 22 people. A day later, nine people were
shot and killed in Dayton, Ohio.
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“Gun
violence in America is not inevitable; it’s preventable,” the business
leaders wrote. “We need our lawmakers to support common-sense gun laws
that could prevent tragedies like these.”
In
addition to the expanded background checks, they are pressing the
government to let federal courts issue temporary orders keeping guns out
of the hands of people considered at risk of violence, under what is
known as a red-flag law.
On Thursday
after the executives released their letter, Business Roundtable, which
had been reluctant to enter the gun debate, called on Congress and the
Trump administration “to come together and enact bipartisan,
common-sense legislation to address this epidemic.” Visa joined with the group, saying that
a “string of mass shootings in America has brought unimaginable sadness
and a feeling of hopelessness to many in our communities.”
A week ago, Walmart, the largest retailer and employer in the country, wrote its own letter to Congress,
pushing for a debate over reauthorizing an assault weapons ban. It also
announced that it was removing certain ammunition and guns from its
shelves and would discourage “open carry” in its stores. Other retailers
followed suit by changing their open-carry policies, including Kroger,
CVS, Walgreens and the Wegmans grocery chain.
The
letter signers on Thursday include the leaders of Airbnb, the Gap,
Pinterest, Lyft, the Brookfield Property Group and Royal Caribbean.
Missing
from the list, however, are some of America’s biggest financial and
technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, JPMorgan Chase
and Wells Fargo, some of which debated internally whether to sign the
letter.
Two companies that signed may
raise eyebrows in Washington: Thrive Capital, whose founder, Joshua
Kushner, is the brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law,
and Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Senator Mitt
Romney, Republican of Utah.
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Read more about business and the gun debate
The
letter is the latest example of the business community’s stepping into a
sensitive political area — sometimes reluctantly — during the Trump
presidency. Business leaders have criticized Mr. Trump’s immigration
policy and his response to the white supremacist violence in
Charlottesville, Va. On guns, the president has on several occasions
offered support for stronger firearms policies before stepping away.
Some
of the letter signers plan to lobby lawmakers in Washington, but it is
unclear how much money, if any, the companies may devote to this issue.
Some
executives signed on without hesitation. Others mulled it, often
creating a raucous debate inside their offices and among their boards of
directors, only to decide that the political risk was too high. More
than a half-dozen executives spoke about their deliberations on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of conversations.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook did not sign, although he told colleagues and peers that he agreed with stricter background checks, two people involved in the conversation said.
With Facebook under federal scrutiny — and contending with a drumbeat
of criticism from Republicans who contend that the company’s platform
silences conservative voices — Mr. Zuckerberg has decided that activism
on this issue would only intensify the spotlight on the company, these
people said. Others inside Facebook made the case that it was a moral
responsibility to press for more responsible gun sales laws.
Similar concerns were raised by the leadership at Google, whose YouTube unit was the site of a shooting last year. Google recently announced
an internal policy that would make it hard for the company to consider
signing the letter. That policy includes this line: “Our primary
responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to
spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”
Uber’s
chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, signed. His company’s policy bans
guns from its vehicles, either for drivers or passengers. Lyft, Uber’s main rival, signed as well.
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Several
executives said one of the biggest practical worries was whether taking
such a stance would lead to in-store confrontations with angry
customers carrying guns. Would they be putting their employees in danger
or even just in an uncomfortable discussion about a divisive issue?
Even
banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, which both publicly distanced
themselves from gunmakers this year by ending lending and banking
relationships with manufacturers, declined to sign the letter. After
they made their positions public this year, the banks were rebuked by
Republican lawmakers. Louisiana passed a law preventing the banks from
working on bond offerings for the state.
“I
personally believe the policies of these banks are an infringement on
the rights of Louisiana citizens,” the state’s treasurer, John Schroder,
said at the time. “No one can convince me that keeping these two banks
in this competitive process is worth giving up our rights.”
For
better or worse, business leaders are increasingly carving out
positions on social issues. It’s not new — and the Hobby Lobby fight
against the contraceptive provision of the Affordable Care Act shows us
that such positioning does not confine itself to progressive causes —
but it is growing.
In some cases,
those maneuvers have happened out of necessity, as when top executives
could not count on a strong response from Washington after the killing
of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That touched off a flurry of calls
between some of the country’s top finance executives about how to handle
a conference being hosted by Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince had been
implicated in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.
But
over the last three years, businesses have become engaged on social
issues like immigration, climate change and race in a way that would
have been unfathomable a decade ago. On Thursday, businesses turned to
the problem of gun violence.
The
letter suggested that background checks on all gun sales were a
“common-sense solution with overwhelming public support.” A number of
polls have put backing for such policies above 90 percent.
The market is demanding action — and businesses are listening.
Read more from Andrew Ross Sorkin on business and guns
Andrew
Ross Sorkin is a columnist and the founder and editor-at-large of
DealBook. He is a co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box and the author of “Too
Big to Fail.” He is also the co-creator of the Showtime drama series
Billions. @andrewrsorkin • Facebook
A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Chief Executives Join Hands to Demand Action on Guns. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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