NRA members can add DICK’S Sporting Goods to their list of companies that won’t be getting their business. The sporting store giant announced Wednesday morning that it will no longer sell “assault-style rifles” in response to the Parkland shooting.
Beginning today, DICK’S Sporting Goods is committed to the following:
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We will no longer sell assault-style rifles, also referred to as modern sporting rifles. We had already removed them from all DICK’S stores after the Sandy Hook massacre, but we will now remove them from sale at all 35 Field & Stream stores.
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We will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age.
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We will no longer sell high capacity magazines.
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We never have and never will sell bump stocks that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly.
In the statement, CEO Edward Stack said that in November of 2017, Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz bought a shotgun from a DICK’S Sporting Goods store. “It was not the gun, nor the type of gun he used in the shooting. But it could have been. Clearly, this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens.”
While expressing his grief over the events in Parkland, Stack said thoughts and prayers aren’t enough.
We have tremendous respect and admiration for the students organizing and making their voices heard regarding gun violence in schools and elsewhere in our country.
We have heard you. The nation has heard you.
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. 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.
DICK’S Sporting Goods is doing what a lot of people are doing in response to the Parkland shooting, even those who say they support the Second Amendment. They’re letting emotion override rationality and evidence. The fact is no type of gun control measures being suggested or actions by retail companies could have stopped what happened.
This issue isn’t even about guns, especially when we consider the history of guns in our country. The cities that have the strictest gun restrictions have the highest rates of gun violence. Regulations like the Brady Act have no impact on gun crime. In addition, with the increase of gun sales, crimes involving guns have actually gone down.
Stack and anyone who thinks any change in gun availability or gun laws is the answer to this problem is playing into a narrative that has nothing to do with protecting our children. When we give even an inch to a leftist narrative that seeks to reduce Americans’ rights and liberties based on an ideology, not principle, we have added one more link in the chains that enslave us to the state.
As George Mason said in The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution in 1788, “To disarm the people … is the most effectual way to enslave them.”
Anyone who values political liberty needs to challenge and reject the premise that guns are part of the problem. As soon as we start accepting this premise — even if we disagree on what to do about it — we have lost precious ground in our fight to preserve our freedom.
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty,” Patrick Henry said in 1778. “Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined …. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
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