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Dick's Sporting Goods ends sale of assault-style rifles | TribLIVE.com
Business

Dick's Sporting Goods ends sale of assault-style rifles

Suzanne Elliott And Ben Schmitt

Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it ended sales of assault-style rifles and was no longer selling any guns to customers under 21 in a move that drew early support from investors despite calls from some to boycott the Findlay-based retailer.

In a letter to customers, Dick's CEO Edward W. Stack, whose father started the business in 1948, issued a four-point policy on gun sales:

• Assault-style rifles, also called modern sporting rifles, will no longer be sold at the company's 35 Field & Stream stores, including ones in Cranberry, Washington, Erie and Altoona. The company stopped selling those rifles at its main Dick's locations following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.

• Firearms will no longer be sold to anyone under the age of 21.

• High-capacity magazines will no longer be sold.

• Bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly, have never been sold in Dick's stores and never will be.

Stack, who was interviewed on Good Morning America on Wednesday, said he supports the Second Amendment and owns a gun. He said he is taking this action in response the recent Florida high school shooting that took 17 lives. Dick's is the nation's largest sporting goods retailer.

Stack said Dick's began scouring its gun purchase records shortly after the identity of the suspected Parkland shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, became known. The company discovered it legally sold a gun to Cruz in November, though it was not the gun or type of gun used in the school shooting, The New York Times reported .

"We said, 'We don't want to be a part of this any longer,'" Stack told The Times.

In Wednesday's statement, Stack said: "We hope others join us in this effort to let our kids know that their pleas are being taken seriously. Some will say these steps can't guarantee tragedies like Parkland will never happen again. They may be correct — but if common sense reform is enacted and even one life is saved, it will have been worth it."

Stack proposed several government reforms in his letter.

"Raise the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21. Ban high-capacity magazines and bump stocks. Require universal background checks that include relevant mental health information and previous interactions with the law. Ensure a complete universal database of those banned from buying firearms. Close the private sale and gun-show loophole that waives the necessity of background checks," Stack wrote.

The company posted its statement on Twitter Wednesday morning.

The announcement was met with backlash from some on social media who said they would boycott Dick's and urged others to do the same.

Outside the Field & Stream store in Cranberry, however, the president of a Georgia-based gun manufacturer took a more measured approach to the announcement from Dick's.

"I'm sure the corporation is under a lot of pressure probably from investors to make a statement, and they've done that. Whether I agree with it or not, that's certainly their right and their privilege to buy and sell what they like," said Gary Ramey, a Bethel Park native who is president of Honor Defense LLC.

When asked how he thought the move might impact business for Dick's, Ramey said, "The people who are searching for AR-15s will obviously go purchase it elsewhere."

Reaction to Dick's Sporting Goods

Gary Ramey, President of Honor Defense LLC, gives his reaction to Dick's Sporting Goods to remove assault style weapons for their stores.

Dick's wasn't taking a hit on Wall Street. Its stock value was up more than 2 percent early Wednesday afternoon.

"The business community and consumer community is perceiving the Dick's announcement highly favorably. ... If there was going to be a negative reaction, it would have been immediate," said retail analyst Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the New York-based Strategic Resource Group.

Flickinger said the decision by Dick's, along with the early uptick in its stock value, was particularly compelling because sporting goods has been performing worse than any of the market's 14 retail sectors.

"It was very courageous and commendable to take this stand at a time when sporting goods retail is the worst sector in all of retail," Flickinger said. "Dick's could have chosen not to do this, but for the future, consumers across America are very conscientious and they will reward Dick's for taking a responsible and constructive stand."

Flickinger estimated that firearms-related sales represent about 1 percent of the retailer's business, and sales of assault-style rifles at the 35 Field & Stream stores and to buyers ages 18 to 20 represent a fraction of that.

Tom Fontaine contributed. Suzanne Elliott and Ben Schmitt are Tribune-Review staff writers.