For the foreseeable future, you can’t find “modern sporting rifles” on the Dick’s Sporting Goods website. The sporting goods chain has indefinitely suspended sales of firearms like the .223 Bushmaster on its web site and in its stores. It has also stopped showing and selling guns entirely at its store nearest Newtown, CT. The store also issued a statement.
“We are extremely saddened by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week in Newtown, CT, and our hearts go out to the victims and their families, and to the entire community.
Out of respect for the victims and their families, during this time of national mourning we have removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown and suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of our stores chainwide.
We continue to extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this terrible tragedy.”
Other firearms and ammunition remain available at the store’s website and its other outlets.
Well, I guess I’ll just have to drive to Cabela’s instead.
Do they mean that all their customers are potential murderers and psychos ?
Strange marketing indeed.
Indeed. Perhaps they should stop selling weight-lifting gear because some use steroids.
I would also like to add that this point out that illustrates that in a world where Progressives command influence, being reasonable and willing to follow laws is a fool’s game, because no matter if 99.99999% end-up being law-abiding, the Progressives will eventually force you to live by their lights and ideals anyway.
Dick’s is overpriced and they have poor knowlege of what they sell. I got my Bushy at Bass Pro. Good riddance.
Now that’s a good point. We recommend that people be very careful about buying a gun at a sporting goods store. They’re often sales people first, and they want to sell what’s on the shelf. That’s understandable from a business standpoint. However, much of what’s on the shelf is there because it’s not the best choice in the first place.
And since I have your attention, Mr. Nemerov, I want you to know I think you have an outstanding column. Thank you.
Do they sell baseball bats? Hockey sticks? Knives? Tent spikes? Bowling balls? Bowling pins?
As a private business, they have to right to choose which products they carry and which they won’t. It would be very different had government mandated them to stop selling rifles. People in the market for rifles will take their business elsewhere.
Likewise, the Discovery Channel has the right not to renew the third season of “American Guns” for whatever reason. If the show is any good (and I think I saw 1 or 2 episodes), some other network will likely carry it.
Let the market work.
This is funny !!!! Hmmmmm…. Lets stop selling a few guns and remove all the guns from the stores near Connecticut… Because we dont want to offend any of the family and or people connected to the tragedy. How about instead that… HAVE A 50% off sale so the Teachers, Citizens and others can arm themselves and when some crazed depressed little man thinks the whole world is after him and he is playing.. poor poor me… shooting up a public venue.. Someone can Pop the Retard in the head with a .223 Rifle and put him out of his own FREAKING MISERY !!!!!! What a bunch of DUMB ASSES at Dicks Sporting Goods
Manufacurers are being targeted, too. Cerberus (Freedom Group) maker of the Bushmaster AR-15 found at the shooting has had $751.4 milion portfolio withdrawn and re-distributed back to Cal State Teachers Retirement System (calSTRS) investors. Sciens Capital – portfolio having Colt Defense, is also in the throes of “evaluating their investment options.”
This drumbeat is being led by the New York Times editor – Andrew Rose Sorkin and Slate’s – Eliot Sptizer (yep, Heidi Fleiss, infidelity-man). Bill Clinton (1993-2001) tried and succeeded in banning assault weapons (later revoked in 2004).This, is to be reintroduced either with Executive Order or legislative action in Congress by Mr. Obama and his crony’s in the Democratic Socialists of America US House of Representative contingent. The “perfect Storm” is now unfolding. Gird-ones-loins. Pray. Amen.
Dick’s is within their rights to not carry this product.
Of course, if they are going to be dicks about it, I likewise feel free to take my business elsewhere.
Yet, they’ve continued to sell football equipment? A sport shown to cause brain damage which has lead many football players to both murder and suicide.
Guess, I won’t be buying anything from them at all. Too bad, I liked their coupons for ammo.
Poor planning on their part – Firearms owners have long memories about things like customer service and political stupidity.
Just like Dick’s Sporting Goods founder, many customers with a relentless work-ethic wait till Christmas to purchase a firearm for a family member. Today, Ed Stack, Dick’s son punished their customers by suspending the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of their stores. The murderer in Newton CT has put a community and national into mourning; and, he is taking Christmas away for Dick’s Customers because of Dick’s son judgment. With Ed’s decision, he is acting like the owner of the Army surplus store in Binghamton, New York who insulted Dick’s founder. He is telling Dick’s customers that they are dumb and have no idea what they are doing. Ed is wrong. Many customers are praying, mourning and our hearts are going out to the victims and their families and the Newtown, CT community. I Can remember receiving my first firearm, Santa, purchased it at Sears. But with Ed Stack judgment, the murderer has won!
Please send your Dicks Score Cards rewards card to: Dicks Sporting Goods, 345 Court Street, Coraopolis, PA 15108.
Wtf this is so unamerican…I work for this place too. If I didn’t need the part time job after a layoff I’d quit. I sell the firearms too. Unbelievable
Every time a business goes leftist, I walk away from them. Dicks just lost my workout attire and lifting gear business, fishing gear, and firearms related business. Dicks stopped selling modern guns? No, they stopped selling me anything. Their emotions will be temporary and those guns will be back, my business, which was substantial, will not.
Django Unchained? I no longer will watch anything by tarantino
Men’s Wearhouse supported occupy Wall Street. I go to Jos A Banks now.
Autozone fired an employee for (didn’t fire) firearm self defense, I go anywhere else.
Game of Thrones had Bush’s head on a pike, I won’t buy or watch the rest of the seasons.
Chick Fil A, never had that until the controversy of a man with an opinion freely stated, I love them spicey chicken sammiches!
I have come to enjoy boycotting liberal businesses. Capitalism should feel good, this way it does.
I would say that I would boycott them but I never shop there anyway — I was never impressed with them in the first place.
I seem to remember that K-Mart took a nosedive, finally taken over by Sears, after they took a principled stand against selling ammunition. I can appreciate one’s courage of convictions, which in this case means turning away customers. If they end up going out of business, well good for them! All their ex-employees will have their boss’ courage to keep them warm.
In other news, Dallas Cowboys’ Josh Brent killed his team-mate Jerry Brown due to drunk driving. I’m still waiting for Bob Costas to come out in favor of Prohibition.
The U.S. militaries have the latest and most fantastic arsenal of weaponry on the planet. In garrison you don’t find them walking around with those weapons and loaded clips. In garrison those weapons and ammunitions are not in general, available for access to the troops except for supervised training purposes. Back in my days, we had rifle racks for our issued M1′s in all our barracks which had to be locked at all times unless authorized for removal. At NO times were the troops authorized to have any ammunition. We weren’t even authorized to have any personal weapons unless approved by command and they had to be weapons on the approval list and locked up in the armory along with any ammunition and they couldn’t be removed from the armory and base without authroization.
I guess they thought the kinds of weapons issued in the miltary wasn’t meant to be used for anything other than official military training and in war.
I’ve hunted and target praticed since a very young kid and have continued to hunt and train my kids over all the many decades since and I’ve yet to have need for protection or hunting, anything more than a semi-auto anything or clips with more than a few rounds. Are people today such bad shots out hunting or protecting their domiciles that they need a 100 rounds to down a deer or intruding thug?
Should there be no lines drawn for the types of civilian owned weaponry and munitions?
I’m all for not disturbing our second ammendment but there always seems to come a time that abuse of any particular freedom mandates some adjustments to that freedom.
We would have few laws in our society but for irresponsible people!
Wow, someone actually used the word “clip” correctly (in context of M1 Garands).
On the flip side, I guess we can put you down as someone who thinks the 2nd Amendment is all about duck hunting….
As for whether or not these weapons are suitable for defense against intruders:
In Texas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBe48u6ERiI
In Arizona:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuhKCiY-lu0
In the first video, you have a kid defending his home with one of these weapons, and in the second video, you have home invaders armed with one of these weapons.
Given the fact the home invaders are, ya know, committing a crime – I seriously doubt gun control laws would have stopped them and suspect the homeowner in the 2nd video probably wishes he had an AR15 as well when he returned fire!
Or, to put it more clearly, imagine trying to take on 4 armed criminals armed only with a 5 or 6 shot revolver or even shotgun. You’d run out of ammo pretty quick and may be out of ammo before you are out of criminals. Don’t get me wrong, the shotgun is the most devastating close range weapon commonly available – but there’s a reason our troops are not armed with a 5 or 6 shot weapon.
Same logic applies to home owners defending their residence.
If these weapons were NOT suitable I seriously doubt the US military would be using them as the same attributes that make the weapon ideal for military use likewise make it ideal for home defense.
**Scottch & 2nd Amendment Mother**
To preface, I have a few years experience way back in another life in law enforcement in the metros of southern cali when I was furthering my education and still have ‘relatives’ in law enforcement in LA and Santa Barbara. I’ll try to be rather short in my comment. The types of weapons all are talking about have NOT made the communities of LA any safer — quite the contrary!
2nd AM – Actually, I was born and raised in the state above TX and have a long history with the state of TX. GO SOONERS! Like all laws good or bad, there are theorized exceptions. For example. Back in the day farmers and ranchers were exempt from certain FAA licensing regulations to own and fly a class B aircraft so long as its primary use was 1) not commercial and 2) used primarily for agri/range use. There could easily be a special licensing exception for you to kill all the little menacing porkers on your property. I’m thinking maybe a drone equipped with cameras, a 50cal machine gun and laser guided bombs would be just right for you. Just imagine you and your porker wranglers could sit at the kitchen table sipping some good hot mud and kill them thar luau delights.
Legitimate justification should be the issue considered for reform and control –not an across the board ban. For example. There are some very effective but dangerous pesticide chemical around. They are allowed to be manufactured and sold BUT….sold and used only by certain trained and qualified licensed personnel in the pest control industry — not the public at large!
Zeke – Not sure where you hunt but it seems to be mostly recreational. My dad is a rancher in Texas where we have a significant problem with feral hogs. Eradicating them is a weekly job, not for sport, food or fun. Not only are the hogs destructive to crops, property and livestock but they’re aggressive and will attack humans. It’s pretty routine to stumble on a nest with 50-60 hogs. There is no way I would consider eradicating those nests with less than 3 or 4 clips and backup.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, huh?
I’ve been in a few, seem more like wardrobe salesmen for Yuppies who want to LOOK the part rather than actually “do” sports…in fact that applies to MOST of the Big Box Sports stores…when most of the floor-space is devoted to clothing, I pretty much figure that they’re pud-knockers.
I don’t think I’ve ever purchased anything at Diok’s, and I’m certain that I never will.
They have THEIR policies and I have MINE.