THE POWERFUL US gun lobby felt the first backlash from the Newtown massacre yesterday when a leading private equity group decided to sell its stake in the company that made the killer’s assault rifle.
Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15, a civilian version of the military’s M-16.
Cerberus Capital Management said it would sell its stake in Bushmaster, calling Friday’s attack a watershed event in the national debate on gun control.
Cerberus attempted to distance its move from the debate.
“We believe that this decision allows us to meet our obligations to the investers whose interests we are entrusted to protect without being drawn into the national debate that is more properly pursued by those with the formal charter and public responsibility to do so,” it said.
The group said it was deeply saddened by the shooting.
Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the US under the 1994 assault weapons ban, but the law expired in 2004.
A White House spokesman said curbing gun violence was a complex problem that required a “comprehensive solution.”
He did not mention specific proposals to follow up on President Barack Obama’s call for “meaningful action.”
New York’s billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, perhaps the most outspoken advocate for gun control in US politics, again pressed Mr Obama and Congress to toughen gun laws and tighten enforcement.
“If this doesn’t do it,” he asked, “what is going to?”
At least one senator, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, said he is rethinking his opposition to the ban on assault weapons.
And senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the powerful National Rifle Association, said it was time to move beyond the political rhetoric and begin an honest discussion about reasonable restrictions on guns.
Meanwhile most children in Newtown returned to school for the first time, as the toll of funerals for the 26 dead continued on a grey, wet day.