Gunmaker American Outdoor Brands Corp.. has told its shareholder BlackRock Inc. that the company does not support taking "politically motivated action" following the Parkland, Fla., shooting.
Gunmakers have come under pressure from asset management firms, which have said they are engaging with the companies to curb gun violence after the Parkland shooting that left 17 dead. BlackRock said March 2 that it may cast proxy votes to influence firearms manufacturers.
But American Outdoor Brands, in its March 6 letter to BlackRock, said the firearms industry is already heavily regulated.
"The solution is not to take a politically motivated action that has an adverse impact on our company, our employees, our industry, our shareholders, the economies we support and, significantly, the rights of our law abiding customers, but results in no increase in public safety," American Outdoor Brands said in the letter.
BlackRock owns 11.1% of American Outdoor Brands, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence as of March 5.
"We will continue to engage with these companies to further understand their business policies and practices in order to protect our clients’ investments in them," BlackRock told S&P Global Market Intelligence in a March 7 statement responding to the American Outdoor Brands' letter.
American Outdoor Brands said the company sees no risk in continuing to manufacture civilian firearms.
"We believe that our stockholders are well aware of the products we manufacture and fully understand the risks associated with investing in a firearms manufacturer, just as investors fully understand the risks associated with investing in other highly regulated industries," the company said.
The gunmaker said the greater risk would come from making products consumers do not want or "if we were to take political positions with which consumers of our products do not agree."
Instead, the focus surrounding gun violence discussions should be on a slew of other topics, outside of the company or other gun manufacturers, the company said. Those topics include the enforcement of current gun control laws and — echoing comments about the Florida shooting made by President Donald Trump — addressing mental illness.
"The first course of action must be to enforce existing laws, address the challenge of acute mental illness in our society and the pervasive depiction of violence in movies and video games," the company said.
The gunmaker also said it supports changing the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System to make it more comprehensive.
On March 1, American Outdoor Brands reported that sales for its fiscal third quarter tumbled 32.6% to $157.4 million from $233.5 million in the year-ago period. American Outdoor Brands, which owns the Smith & Wesson brand, manufactures the M&P15 rifle, a modified version of the AR-15 rifle that Nikolas Cruz allegedly used to kill 17 people in Florida, according to a Feb. 16 report by Time.
