Connecticut’s treasurer, who oversees $37 billion in public pension funds, announced plans Tuesday to divest $30 million worth of shares in civilian firearm manufacturers while banning similar future investments and creating incentives for banks and financial institutions to enact gun-related policies when lending to companies.

If approved by an advisory board, it will mark the first time Connecticut has taken the step of divesting shares in firearm-related companies since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown that left 20 children and six educators dead.

State Treasurer Shawn Wooden’s predecessor had attempted to influence the practices of such manufacturers, an approach Wooden noted hasn’t stopped gun violence. “I believe divestment should be a tool of last resort, and I support engagement and engaged ownership as a shareholder. The sad truth is, even working with other institutional investors throughout the country, engagement on this issue has not worked,” Wooden said.

“The cost, the economic cost, the social cost of gun violence is very, very significant. And the time is now because we don’t have greater action in Washington on this issue.” Connecticut pension funds are currently invested in five of 17 companies identified by an independent index as producers of guns and ammunition.

The state has roots to the gun industry dating back to the early 1800s. Factories in Middletown, Connecticut, provided pistols to the U.S. government during the War of 1812. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson of Smith and Wesson fame designed the first repeating rifle in Norwich, Connecticut, and the gun went into mass production in New Haven.

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