The San Francisco 49ers have made a half a million dollar donation to toward supporting gun control legislation, the team announced Thursday.
#Breaking San Francisco #49ers & several police unions to sign pledge today for “bump stock” ban & to improve community-police relations. pic.twitter.com/bp14ojOPrt
— Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7) October 26, 2017
The 49ers and a coalition of police unions also released a joint statement that reads:
“The duty of law enforcement must also include actively participating in bringing our nation together and working to foster a more understanding and compassionate national dialogue around community and police officer relations. We believe that professional sports teams should utilize their capacity to reach millions of Americans to promote initiatives that help law enforcement professionals and the citizens they serve understand their respective experiences and to listen to one another with an open mind and heart.”
The legislation in question would ban mechanisms that can make a semi-automatic weapon an automatic weapon, like the ones used on firearms during the tragic shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and 546 injured. A portion of the donation will also go to televised public service announcements according to the San Jose Mercury News.