Dick’s CEO Brags He Destroyed $5 Million Dollars in ‘Assault Rifles’ Instead of Selling Them

The CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods said the company destroyed more than $5 million worth of assault-style rifles after he decided to stop selling the weapons. 

In an interview Sunday with CBS News, Ed Stack said that the firearms were turned into scrap metal.

“I said, ‘You know what? If we really think these things should be off the street, we need to destroy them,'” he said.

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After a series of high-profile mass shooting in August, retailers have faced pressure from gun control activists to limit access to firearms. But sales have nonetheless spiked.

Stack announced Dick’s would stop selling assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter killed 17 students and school staff with a weapon purchased from a Dick’s location.

“We found out that we sold this kid a shotgun,” Stack said. “That’s when I said, ‘We’re done.'”

Dick’s in May expanded a pilot program to stop selling guns entirely at 125 locations. Stack said he is considering expanding that policy, too.

Meanwhile Walmart, which was the scene of an August shooting that killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas, said last month that it would stop selling handgun ammunition at all its U.S. locations and end handgun sales in Alaska.

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Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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