California Teachers to Sell Stakes in Bushmaster .223 Owner, High Capacity Magazine Makers (SWHC; RGR)

Everyone who's been at the market for a while knows the feeling. You're looking at the quarterly portfolio positions and asking yourself "How'd that get in there?"
From Capitol Weekly:

The nation’s second largest public pension fund, reacting to a mass school shooting in Connecticut last month, is taking a new look at the “social” impact of its $150 billion investment portfolio.

 The California State Teachers Retirement System found that it owned stock, apparently in violation of its own policy, in the maker of a semi-automatic rifle, banned in California, that was used to kill 20 first-graders and six adults in an elementary school.

 Teachers on the CalSTRS board seemed emotionally moved yesterday before a unanimous vote that may result in the sale of $2.9 million worth of stock in Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson, makers of some guns and large ammo clips banned in California.

Through its holdings in a private equity firm, Cerberus, the pension fund also owns stock valued at $8.8 million in the Freedom Group, maker of the Bushmaster rifle used by a lone gunman in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

 Dana Dillon, board chair, said she realizes an inquiry from CalSTRS may not be the “single factor” prompting Cerberus to announce that it would sell its shares in Freedom Group, owner of Remington, Marlin, H&R and other brands.

 Her voice breaking, Dillon asked the staff: “When you have conversations, did you express our gratitude for moving quickly?” She was told Cerberus had been thanked in the media and directly in conversations....MORE

CalSTRS is very big ($155 Bil.) so for them an $11.7 mil. position in the three is very, very small.
Still, you have to wonder why the teachers didn't notice earlier.