Anita Britt, the chief financial officer of a Catholic university in Miami has resigned from her position rather than exit the board of a gun manufacturer, Crux Now reported.
Britt was the CFO of St. Thomas University, and had been facing criticism for being a board member of American Outdoor Brands Corp., the parent company of Smith & Wesson, the gun manufacturer of automatic rifles such as the AR-15, which was used in the Parkland, Florida school shootings, Crux Now reported.
Officials from the school told Britt, who was hired in December, that she would have to resign from the American Outdoor Brands board if she wanted to keep her St. Thomas position. She had joined the board after taking the St. Thomas job.
Initially, university leaders said they saw no conflict, but reaction from the public and the faculty led Monsignor Franklyn M. Casale to make the decision, The Miami Herald reported.
"I came to the conclusion that St. Thomas was being associated with gun violence and that was not an image I thought was good for the university," Casale said, the Herald reported.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has for years pushed for more stringent gun control, according to Crux Now.
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