美国校园枪击案背后的资金链

    你知道谁持有.223口径大毒蛇（Bushmaster）步枪制造商自由集团（Freedom Group）超过6%的股份？上周五，正是这种步枪在康涅狄格州纽敦镇枪击杀死了20名一年级小学生和7名成人，也就是加州的公立学校教师们。

    自由集团是由私募股权和对冲基金集团塞伯路斯资本管理公司（Cerberus Capital Management）成立的一家非上市军火集团。2006年4月，塞伯路斯通过收购大毒蛇武器公司（Bushmaster）创建了这一平台，此后它又添加了10家武器、弹药和军火配件商（包括Remington防务公司，Marlin Arms公司和Barnes Bullets公司等）。

    加州教师退休基金（The California State Teachers' Retirement System, 简称CalSTRS）曾承诺出资5亿美元，参与一个总额75亿美元的基金，为自由集团提供资金支持，意味着它事实上可能持有这家枪支制造商6.67%的股份。这家枪支制造商曾于2009年底申请上市，2011年初撤回了申请。事实上，实际数字可能更高，因为加州教师退休基金还曾承诺出资1亿美元，参与一个10亿美元的前身基金，这只基金可能进行了原始投资。

    老实说，我不知道这是为什么。先来看看加州教师退休基金的投资责任声明部分：

    除了盈利因素，非经济因素也是投资决策时的考虑因素。非经济因素是指与收益最大化和保存本金不直接相关的因素。考虑非经济因素，是为了确保加州教师退休基金的作为或者不作为不会加剧、纵容或造成社会伤害。

    自由集团造成了社会伤害？我不是说造成社会伤害是它的使命，但这显然是一个可预见的后果。

    而且，加州教师退休基金早已列明“在对任何投资决定进行财务分析时应该包括的”21条风险因素。下面列出的这条侧重于人类健康：

    如果一项投资所涉行业或公司的产品对人类健康高度有害，可能引发较多的产品责任诉讼、政府监管处罚、联合国制裁和关注以及其他机构回避投资，这项投资的长期盈利能力就可能面临风险。

    制造半自动步枪当然属于这一类了。

    Do you know who owns more than a 6% stake in the maker of .223 Bushmaster rifles, like the one used last Friday to murder 20 first graders and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut? California public schoolteachers.

    The company in question is Freedom Group, a privately-held firearms conglomerate formed by private equity and hedge fund group Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus created the platform in April 2006 via the acquisition of Bushmaster, after which it added another 10 makers of firearms, ammunition and accessories (including Remington, Marlin Arms and Barnes Bullets).

    The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) committed to invest a whopping $500 million into a $7.5 billion Cerberus fund that has helped bankroll Freedom Group. That means that it effectively could own a 6.67% stake in the gun maker, which filed to go public in late 2009 before pulling the offering in early 2011. In fact, the figure could be even higher since CalSTRS also committed $100 million to a $1 billion predecessor fund, which likely made the original investment.

    What I honestly don't understand, however, is why. Check out the following part of the pension system's statement on investment responsibility:

    Non-economic factors will supplement profit factors in making investment decisions. Non-economic factors are defined as those considerations not directly related to the maximization of income and the preservation of principal. The consideration of non-economic factors is for the purpose of ensuring that the Retirement System, either through its action or inaction, does not promote, condone or facilitate social injury.

    Does Freedom Group not facilitate social injury? I'm not suggesting that social injury is its mission, but it certainly is a foreseeable consequence.

    Moreover, CalSTRS has identified 21 risk factors "that should be included within the financial analysis of any investment decision." Here is the one titled Human Health:

    The risk to an investment's long-term profitability from business exposure to an industry or company that makes a product which is highly detrimental to human health so that it draws significant product liability lawsuits, government regulation, United Nations sanctions and focus, and avoidance by other institutional investors.

    Pretty sure the manufacture of semi-automatic rifles would apply here as well.