Calif. Teachers Fund To Sell $3 Million In Firearm Stocks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The nation's largest teacher pension fund says it will sell about $3 million worth of stock from companies that make guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines that are illegal in California.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System announced Friday that it will sell holdings in Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer made a motion in January to divest after pension fund officials determined that the $162 billion fund invests in the owner of a company that manufactured one of the weapons used in the Connecticut school shooting.

The fund invests for more than 850,000 public school teachers, other employees and their relatives.

CalSTRS' Investment Committee Chairman Harry Keiley said in a statement that the fund's actions are the "appropriate response."

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.