And here in Manhattan, activists with the group Gays Against Guns rallied outside the New York City headquarters of the investment management company BlackRock to protest its investment in gun manufacturers. As of 2015, BlackRock was one of the top three shareholders of the gun manufacturers Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co. BlackRock has also invested heavily in major ammunition companies. During the protest, 12 activists staged a die-in to represent the people killed in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre. The shooter, James Holmes, had used a Smith & Wesson-manufactured semiautomatic rifle. This is organizer Tim Murphy.

Tim Murphy: “We’re protesting BlackRock today because they’re the largest asset management company in the country, and every time there’s a mass shooting, since 2012, they buy more and more stocks in guns, because they know that the death business is good business for them. They are literally profiting off the backs of dead people.”