QuestionerI should say this may be one of the most pointed questions I've ever received for you. But you've elected to give it, though anyway. But I did. Investors are increasingly looking to invest in companies. They're socially and morally responsible. So I was disturbed when you were asked on CNBC about the role that business could play in sensible policies around the sales of guns. You said you didn't think business should have a role at all, and you wouldn't impose your values on others. I was even more surprised when you said you'd be okay with Berkshire owning shares and gun manufacturers. At this meeting years ago, you said you wouldn't buy a tobacco company because of the social issues. The idea that Berkshire would associate with any company, as long as it isn't illegal, seems at odds with everything I think you stand for. Please tell us you misspoke.
WarrenWell, let's explore that a little. Should it be just a my view or should it be the view of the owners of the company? So if I decide to poll the owners of the company on a variety of political issues, and one of them being whether, you know, Berkshire Hathaway should support the NRA, you know, I don't, if a majority of the shareholders voted to do it, or if a majority of the board of directors voted to do it, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't accept that. I don't think that the, my political views, I don't think I put I don't think I put them in a blind trust at all when I take the job. And I, in the election of 2016, I raised a lot of money. In my case, I raised it for Hillary, and I spoke out in various ways that were quite frank. But I don't think that I speak, when I do that, I don't think I'm speaking for Berkshire. I'm speaking as a private citizen, and I don't think I have any business speaking for Berkshire. We have never, at the parent company level, we have never made a political contribution. You know, I may go, and I don't, I don't go to our suppliers, I don't do anything of that sort where I raise money either for the school I went to or for a political candidate I went to or anything else.
QuestionerYou do draw a limit, Warren.
WarrenYeah, we did. All kinds of things.
QuestionerYeah.
WarrenWhich are beneath us, even though they're legal. But we don't necessarily draw it perfectly because we've got some sort of supreme knowledge. We just do the best we can. And certainly we're not going to ban all guns surrounded by wild turkeys in Omaha.