Dick’s to stop selling AR-15s as U.S. gun debate rages

The decision by Dick’s Sporting Goods to stop selling AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles is the latest example of a business that has found itself embroiled in the fastchanging national conversation about gun control.

While some people said they were happy with the decision, others said businesses should not be making customers’ decisions for them.

“I do respect Dick’s for not selling assault weapons,” Robin Ives said Wednesday after visiting the Dick’s Sporting Goods store at Danbury Fair mall. “I don’t think businesses should be involved with politics. I’m taken aback by all the news about businesses and the NRA and the gun issue.”

Ives, a Newtown resident and retired school principal, said school and other mass shootings involving semiautomatic weapons constitute a “national crisis” that needs to be “attacked from a lot of different directions.”

Dick’s also said Wednesday it would not sell guns to anyone under age 21 and will not sell highcapacity magazines. Dick’s CEO Edward Stack said the decision was made in response to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Separately, Walmart also said late Wednesday it will not sell guns or ammunition to anyone under 21. The retail giant made the point that it has a stricter background check procedure than federal law requires. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy issued a statement late Wednesday praising the Walmart change and renewed his calls for the federal government to take action as well.

In an open letter sent to Dick’s employees Wednesday, Stack wrote: “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 would continue to support the Second Amendment and, in subsequent interviews, acknowledged that he is a gun owner. The letter noted that the vast majority of gun owners are “responsible, law-abiding citizens.”

The National Retail Federation, in a statement, said gun retailers are concerned about being compliant with local, state and federal laws. It did not comment specifically on Dick’s announcement. “Ultimately, what type of guns they sell in their stores is a business decision,” David French, senior vice president of government relations at NRF, said.

Dick’s also halted the sale of semiautomatic rifles following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. It brought the weapons back to its 35 Field & Stream branded locations after a few months. This time, Stack said, the sale stoppage will include those stores and be permanent.

There are no Field & Stream locations in Connecticut.

Connecticut banned the sale of assault-style weapons in 1993 and strengthened the restrictions in 2013 following the Sandy Hook shooting. California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., also have bans on semiautomatic guns.

Dick’s move made Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s the only major retailers to continue to sell semiautomatic rifles, sometimes referred to as modern sporting rifles. Bass Pro Shops, which purchased Cabela’s last year, did not respond to requests for comment.

Dick’s has locations in Danbury, Norwalk and Milford. Bass Pro Shops has a location in Bridgeport and a Cabela’s in East Hartford.

Walmart stopped selling semiautomatic rifles three years ago, citing lagging customer demand.

Dick’s becomes the latest business to make headlines following the Florida shooting after companies such as Delta Air Lines, Hertz and MetLife publicly cut ties with the National Rifle Association over the past two weeks. FedEx said it would not cut ties with the NRA.

The Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation expressed disappointment in Dick’s decision. The announcement was largely symbolic, according to the NSSF, as there are only 35 Field & Stream stores and a small percentage of overall gun sales come from big retailers.

Southwick Associates, a Florida-based outdoor recreation market research company, found that 22.7 percent of traditional rifles and 12 percent of modern sporting rifles are sold by big-box retailers.

“We respect the right of all companies to make the business decisions they feel are appropriate for their business,” the NSSF said in a statement. “Nonetheless, we are disappointed by the decision of Dick’s Sporting Goods to stop selling modern sporting rifles.”

The NSSF statement said that members of its industry believe unauthorized individuals should not have access to any firearm. It calls on Congress to pass the Fix NICS Bill, which would increase the reporting of all “disqualifying criminal and applicable mental health records to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System database to increase the effectiveness of the system on which our nation’s retailers depend.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is co-author of the Fix NICS bill and Sen. Richard Blumenthal is among a small group of bipatrisan legislators cosponsoring it.