Levi Strauss joins up with gun control group: 'Americans shouldn’t have to live in fear'

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Jeans giant Levi Strauss has announced it will begin to campaign for tighter gun control.

The firm could not “stand by silently when it comes to issues that threaten the very fabric of the communities where we live and work," the firm's president and chief executive, Chip Bergh said.

"Americans "shouldn’t have to live in fear of gun violence," he wrote on the Fortune website, adding that “while taking a stand can be unpopular with some, doing nothing is no longer an option”.

He said: “The stakes could not be higher. On an average day, 96 Americans are killed by guns, and hundreds more are wounded. Most are suicides or unintentional shootings. Our nation’s gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average rate of other high-income countries.”

Levi Strauss had created a philanthropic fund to disburse more than $1m (£780,000) in grants to non-profit and activist groups, as well as joining a group called Everytown Business Leaders for Gun Safety, he said.

Others involved in that initiative included billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, he added. Levi will also double its matching of donations by employees if the recipients are “aligned” with its new philanthropic fund.

The announcement follows a string of high-profile mass shootings in the US this year.

In February, 17 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a high school in the Florida city of Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been charged with their murders.

Three months later, 10 people were killed when another gunman opened fire at a school in Santa Fe High School, Texas. In June five people were killed at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland.

Then last, 24-year-old David Katz killed two people and left 12 people injured at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, before he died from a self inflicted gun shot.

Last year saw the deadliest mass shooting in US history when unman Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds during at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

On Tuesday Fred Guttenberg, the father of Parkland school shooting victim Jaime Guttenberg, grabbed headlines when he tried to shake the hand of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Mr Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s pick for the seat vacated by Anthony Kennedy, turned away from Mr Guttenberg in an apparent snub.

A number of other companies have announced fresh stances on guns in recent months. Delta Airlines and others broke ties with the influential National Rifle Association, while Citigroup said it would not trade with companies that sold guns to people under 21.

Walmart, the retail giant, said following Parkland that it would raise the age under which its customers could not purchase guns to 21.