Business leaders call on Congress to take action against gun violence



[ad_1]

In addition to thorough background checks, they urge the government to allow federal courts to issue temporary orders that allow people considered to be at risk of violence to be excluded from firearms, under the so-called flag law. red.

A week ago, Walmart, the country's largest retailer and employer, wrote its own letter to Congress, calling for a debate on the reauthorization of an assault weapons ban. He also announced that he was removing some ammunition and firearms from his shelves and would discourage "open portering" in his stores. Other retailers have followed suit by changing their open door policies, including Kroger, CVS, Walgreens and the Wegmans grocery chain.

The signatories of Thursday's letter include the executives of Airbnb, Gap, Pinterest, Lyft, Brookfield Property Group and Royal Caribbean.

Some of the largest US financial and technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, are not on the list. Some of them internally debated the signature of the letter.

Thrive Capital, whose founder, Joshua Kushner, is the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump, and Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah.

This letter is the latest example of the introduction by the business world into a sensitive political area – sometimes reluctantly – during the Trump presidency. Business leaders have criticized Trump's immigration policy and his response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. On firearms, the President has repeatedly proposed to support more stringent firearms policies before moving away.

Some of the letter writers plan to put pressure on lawmakers in Washington, but it is unclear how much money, if any, companies could devote to this problem.

[ad_2]

Source link