Dick's Sporting Goods to stop selling assault weapons, raise age to 21
Google
The Dick's Sporting Goods store located in Natick is pictured here.
Pittsburgh-based Dick’s Sporting Goods is ending sales of assault-style rifles and will no longer sell any firearm to anyone under 21, including at its Massachusetts stores.
That includes locations in Natick, Northborough, Millbury and Worcester.
Wednesday’s announcement came from Chairman and CEO Edward Stack on the company’s website and Twitter account.
The decision is a direct response to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. that took the lives of 17 students and faculty.
“We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens,” Stack wrote. “But we have to help solve the problem that’s in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that’s taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America – our kids.”
Stack said the company had already removed assault-style rifles from Dick’s stores after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, but the weapons will no longer be sold at 35 Dick’s-owned Field & Stream stores.
According to Field & Stream’s website, there are no locations in Massachusetts.
Beginning Wednesday at Dick’s stores, customers will no longer be able to buy firearms if they’re under 21; and no one can buy high capacity magazines and bump stocks - which the company says it has never sold - than can turn a semi-automatic rifle into an automatic weapon.
Stack called on legislators to enact common sense gun reform, including banning assault-style firearms, raising the minimum purchase age to 21, banning high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, strengthening the background check system and closing the private sale and gun show loophole that bypasses the background check requirement.
“Some will say these steps can’t guarantee tragedies like Parkland will never happen again,” Stack said. “They may be correct – but if common sense reform is enacted and even one life is saved, it will have been worth it.”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments