Industry Watch
Highland Park Peace Project Targets Gun Industry Supply Chain
Activists compile 'enabler' and 'hero' database to pressure companies tied to assault weapon makers
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✍️By ZRIntel Editorial Team📍Highland Park, IL
HIGHLAND PARK, IL In the wake of the 2022 Independence Day parade mass shooting that claimed seven lives, local residents have launched a novel economic campaign aimed at the business networks of assault weapon manufacturers. The Highland Park Peace Project, co-founded by attorneys Stephanie Jacobs and Daniel Perlman, recently unveiled a public database grading companies as either 'enablers' or 'heroes' based on their connections to firearms makers like Smith & Wesson and Sig Sauer. The database identifies law firms, banks, retailers, and service providers linked to the supply and sale of semiautomatic rifles, while praising corporations such as Salesforce and Costco for policies that limit or prohibit assault weapon sales. Targets include TD Bank Group, cited for lending to Smith & Wesson, and Bass Pro Shops for selling certain long rifles. Organizers hope consumers will shift spending toward businesses they deem responsible, applying market pressure in lieu of slow-moving legislative reform. The initiative follows Jacobs years of advocacy in violence prevention circles and was spurred by conversations with Perlman about how public pension funds have leveraged investment policy to influence firearm manufacturing. They believe consumer activism can mirror those results on a broader scale.