Dick’s Sporting Goods Bans AR-15’s

• Steve
• February 28, 2018
• 0 Comment
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In an unprecedented move Dick’s Sporting Goods has removed AR-15 and assault looking rifles from their stores effective immediately.  The decision comes in the wake of the Parkland shooting and the fact that the gunmen who killed 17 people, was able to legally obtain a gun at one of their stores.

Dick’s CEO Edward Stack stated that the store did not want to a part of selling those styles of weapons and also stated that they would never be allowed in their stores again.

The store also now prohibits the sale of guns to people under the age of 21, an announcement made in conjunction with the ban on AR-15’s and assault style rifles.

This is not the perfect answer and will not solve the many issues the United States has with balancing gun rights and people’s safety, but it is a start.  Because our politicians are too worried about sound bites and getting reelected, solutions will have to start with the people and the private sector.  The manufacturers are not likely to step up and reduce production or limit who they sell to.  The politicians will continue to advocate for whomever is putting money in their wallet which could be coming from either side of this debate.  The NRA and the GOP aren’t the only one’s guilty here,  there are plenty of Democrats taking money from anti-gun, anti-second amendment groups which is preventing a productive dialogue from taking place.

The question is how will others in the private sector respond, retailers, manufactures?  How will President Donald Trump respond and other powerful members of the GOP?  Dick’s has dipped their toe in the waters of common sense, now it’s time for others to step up and join them.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., one of the largest retailers of its kind in the United States, is taking new steps to curtail the sale of firearms, including ending sales of assault-style rifles and banning the sale of guns to people younger than 21, the company announced this morning.

“Based on what’s happened and looking at those kids and those parents, it moved us all unimaginably,” company Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said today on “Good Morning America,” referring to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 14 students and three educators.

“To think about the loss and the grief that those kids and those parents had, we said, ‘We need to do something,'” Stack, whose father, Dick, started the business 70 years ago, explained. “And we’re taking these guns out of all of our stores permanently.”

The move follows the revelation that Nikolas Cruz, the alleged gunman behind the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, bought a gun at Dick’s in 2017. It was not the gun nor the kind of gun used in the massacre, however.

“We did everything by the book,” Stack said of Cruz. “We did everything that the law required and still he was able to buy a gun. When we looked at that, we said, ‘The systems that are in place across the board just aren’t effective enough to keep us from selling someone a gun like that.’”

The new measures go into effect today. Aside from Dick’s, the Pittsburgh-based, publicly traded company also operates stores under the Gold Galaxy, Field & Stream, True Runner and Chelsea Collective banners.

Dick’s announced a temporary suspension of assault-style rifles from its stores after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 elementary school students and educators.

Assault-style rifles were later sold in the company’s Field & Stream stores, Stack said.

When asked whether there is a chance the company will reverse its position on the newly announced ban, Stack replied, “Never.”

“We’re staunch supporters of the 2nd Amendment. I’m a gun owner myself,” Stack said. “We’ve just decided that based on what’s happened with these guns, we don’t want to be a part of this story and we’ve eliminated these guns permanently.”

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