(Bloomberg) -- As of this week, Michigan's public employees no longer own gun shares.
The State of Michigan Retirement System, which manages $70 billion in pensions for educators, police and other public employees, on Monday sold its holdings in chemical company Olin Corp., which makes Winchester ammunition, according to Ron Leix, a spokesman for the state treasurer.
The sale hasn't been previously reported. It followed inquires by Bloomberg and other media outlets, as well as from public employees served by the pension, about the investment holdings of teachers in the wake of a shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.
The retirement system owns shares of companies in the S&P MidCap 400 Index as part of its passive investment strategy, Leix said. Until Monday, he said the retirement system owned almost 60,000 shares of Olin valued at approximately $2 million.
Public School Teachers' Retirement Funds Invested in Guns: Chart
Teacher pension funds in 12 states, including Michigan and Florida, owned shares in gun and ammunition makers, Bloomberg reported last week. Joanne McCall, president of the Florida Education Association, later said "I am sure that most of Florida's public school employees are as sickened as I am" to learn of the gun-industry investments. The Florida pension's assets are overseen by three elected officials, all Republicans, with the teachers' union exercising no control.
--With assistance from Ivan Levingston
To contact the reporter on this story: Neil Weinberg in New York at nweinberg2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider
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