Dick's Sporting Goods Announces It Will Remove Guns and Hunting Products from Majority of Stores

Two years after banning so-called “assault weapons, Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced it will now eliminate the hunting section and all firearms from a majority of its stores. The retailer made the announcement while reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, according to Fox Business. Apparently emboldened by increased sales of baseballs and outerwear, Dick’s will stop selling firearms in 440 of its stores and completely eliminate the hunting section in those locations by the end of this fiscal year. The hunting section already had been eliminated from 125 Dick’s locations. Company CEO Edward Stack told Market Watch last year the departments would be replaced with “categories and products that can drive growth.” Dick’s has not ruled out removing guns from all locations. With the company so entrenched in its anti-gun stance, it has little to lose by eliminating hunting merchandise at this point. After alienating gun owners, the sporting goods chain is free to exercise its liberal politics unrestricted as it attracts a new customer base. Dick’s went from selling firearms to joining the gun control lobby in 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter had previously bought a shotgun at a Dick’s location, which bothered Stack. While the shooter did not use the shotgun during his rampage, Dick’s decided to raise the minimum age of gun-buying customers to 21 and to ban “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines,” Stack told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in 2018. Stack bragged to CBS News in October that his company had destroyed $5 million worth of what he called “assault rifles” as part of its new stance against firearms and hunters. Rather than return the guns to the manufacturer, Stack told CBS he wanted to destroy them. Dick’s hired a number of anti-gun lobbyists in 2018 and has been attempting to force its liberal corporate policy on Americans who no longer shop in the company’s stores, according to Bloomberg...MORE