American Outdoor would also have to catalogue any efforts “to research and produce” smart guns, which can be fired only by their owners. The company has been openly hostile to the idea, which could cut down on accidental shootings by gun owners’ children and render stolen weapons useless. But activists are hoping the shareholder proposal will put some pressure on the manufacturer to alter its position.

On Tuesday, Springfield-based American Outdoor Brands, formerly known as Smith & Wesson, is holding an annual meeting. And investors will consider a shareholder proposal , filed by a group of nuns and other Catholic activists, that would require the company to prepare a report on the risks of selling firearms.

Washington isn’t doing anything about our epidemic of gun violence. But investors in the country’s largest gun manufacturers can.


Not so long ago, it would have been hard to imagine investors approving even a modest measure like this one. But the high school massacre in Parkland, Fla., carried out with an American Outdoor-manufactured M&P15 tactical rifle, was a turning point.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, began asking gunmakers about firearm safety. And in May, the firm was reportedly among the investors who voted to require another gun manufacturer, Sturm Ruger, to produce a report like the one activists are now pressing on American Outdoor.

BlackRock can play a pivotal role this week, as American Outdoor’s biggest investor. Boston-based State Street, another substantial shareholder, won’t say how it plans to vote on the shareholder proposal.

But after the Parkland massacre, State Street said, “We will be engaging with weapons manufacturers and distributors to seek greater transparency from them on the ways that they will support the safe and responsible use of their products.”

Now is the time to step up. But requiring American Outdoor to prepare a report is just a start.


Over time, investors should make more aggressive moves. And they’ll have to be persistent, because gunmakers aren’t eager to cross the National Rifle Association.

After the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, Smith & Wesson’s then-chief executive, Ed Shultz, actually embraced a series of voluntary reforms, including child-safe triggers and a pledge to develop smart guns.

The NRA pushed back hard, accusing the manufacturer of “craven self-interest” and saying it had “run up the white flag of surrender.” A boycott nearly brought the company to its knees, and after new owners bought Smith & Wesson at a steep discount, they made peace with the NRA and took a hard line against new safety measures.

Shareholders’ only hope of dislodging the company from that position is getting several of the largest gunmakers to go along; American Outdoor won’t step out alone like Smith & Wesson did two decades ago.

Getting all the big players to move will be hard. But activists have already won a small victory at Sturm Ruger. They can add another this week, at American Outdoor. Then they’ll have some momentum. And that’s more than they have in Washington.