WPRO News and The Associated Press
Rhode Island’s state treasurer says the state’s public pension fund will stop investing in companies that operate private prisons and make assault-style weapons for sale to civilians.
General Treasurer Seth Magaziner made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday to reveal details of the policy.
“If Rhode Island as a state is going to be a place that is moral and just and ethical, we cannot associate with companies that profit off of human suffering,” Magaziner said.
Erica Keuter, of East Greenwich, a survivor of the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people, attended.
“The carnage that one person did with those assault rifles, I pray every day that nobody has to experience it,” Keuter said. “Yet here we are two years later and we continue to have mass shootings with these type of rifles.”
Magaziner’s office says only three other state pension funds have taken similar action, and Rhode Island is the first to announce divestment from both private prisons and assault weapons manufacturers at the same time
