The Park Avenue office of investor giant Blackstone on Monday became the site of a horrific shooting that killed an executive of the firm’s real estate investment trust, Wesley LePatner..
The attack, like other mass shootings, has once again raised questions about public safety in New York City, the future of gun control laws and what role companies like Blackstone that control the purse strings play in championing those reforms.
While Blackstone leaders have to yet to make a statement about the firm’s stance on the issue and whether it plans to take definitive action in the wake of the attack, the financial giant has for years pushed to eliminate its holdings in companies that manufacture and sell guns
Blackstone does not invest directly in any gun manufacturers, according to The Real Deal’s review of its holdings as of March, the latest available filing.
The company does invest in some defense and advanced weapons firms, including $5 million worth of shares in Karman Holdings, an aerospace and defense company that specializes in missile systems, among other products. It also owns roughly $880 million worth of shares in the Loar Group, which designs and manufactures products for military aircrafts.
It’s unclear whether some of the funds the company invests include any gun or ammunition makers, though Blackstone previously took steps to ensure it was not investing in funds with holdings in these companies.
After the 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Blackstone leaders asked about a dozen managers of funds the firm invests in to report any ownership in gun-related companies, according to the Wall Street Journal at the time. A spokesperson for Blackstone then told the publication that the firm didn’t have any “direct exposure to the firearms industry” but that it wanted to be sure.
A spokesperson for Blackstone did not respond to a request for comment this week on whether the firm had identified any ties to gun makers in 2018, and whether its inquiry resulted in any changes to its relationship with the funds it reviewed.
Blackstone’s path to clearing its exposure to gun makers started at least as early as 2013. About three months after a deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut killed 26 students and staff members, Blackstone sold its holdings in Colt Defense, a gun manufacturer, back to the company for $14 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In the years since, Blackstone has not faced the same level of criticism as other investors such as BlackRock and Vanguard, both of which have funds under their umbrella that invest in gun makers like Smith & Wesson Brands and Sturm Ruger & Co and ammunitions manufacturer Olin Corporation, according to gunfreefunds.org.
Four people died in the shooting at Blackstone’s Midtown office, including a police officer, security guard and associate at Rudin Management, Julia Hyman. The CEO of Blackstone’s BREIT, Wesley LePatner, was also among those killed in the attack.
The gunman, later identified as the 27-year-old Shane Devon Tamura, fatally shot himself on the 33rd-floor of the building. Police found a note he was carrying indicating that the attack was targeted at the National Football League, which shares the office building with Rudin, Blackstone, KPMG and Deutsche Bank.
Previous mass shootings have pushed other investors to take action. In the months following the Parkland shooting, several firms scrambled to distance themselves from gun manufacturers and retailers, including BlackRock, which was the largest institutional shareholder of the manufacturer that made the gun used in the shooting.
“The recent tragedy in Florida has driven home for BlackRock the terrible toll from gun violence in America,” BlackRock said in a statement at the time. “We believe that this event requires response and action from a wide range of entities across both the public and private sectors.”
BlackRock, run by CEO Larry Fink, also rolled out two ETFs that pledged not to invest in gun and ammunition firms. (Just four years later, the firm remained the leading institutional investor in four major gun makers or retailers, according to Quartz).
Real estate hasn’t historically taken a significant stand on gun control, though some in the industry have weighed in on the issue. Following the Parkland shooting, Scott Rechler, the CEO and chairman of RXR Realty partnered with Everytown for Gun Safety to promote gun control reform.
“Recently, we have experienced some of the deadliest mass shootings in our nation’s history,” Rechler said at the time. “Yet the response from our federal leaders has been no response at all.”
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