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Local Customers React To Dick's Guns Decision

BEND, OR -- Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack announced Wednesday the retailer will make several changes in response to the February 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Stack says Dick's locations stopped selling assault-style rifles after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Now, the company's smaller Field and Stream stores will now join that policy. The stores will also stop selling high-capacity magazines, and it will not allow any customers under the age of 21 to purchase a firearm. Click HERE to read his full letter from February 28, 2018. 


Dick's customers in Bend had mixed reactions to the policy change. Local birdhunter, Ed Carson, made a special trip to the Bend store to thank them for what he calls "a bold step." He tells KBND News, "Hopefully, it's the beginning of a wave that's going to sweep all the other companies across the country to step up and get in line." Judy Hatfield doesn't understand why assault-type rifles were ever for sale to the public in the first place, "I don't know what their purpose is, other than in war. But people that are just common hunters, I think that's really not very sporting if you're going to use one of those."

 

However, Bend's Jerry Winstead is skeptical the move will do any real good, calling Stack's decision an attempt to garner good publicity. He says if he ever wants an assault rifle, he's sure he could easily find one somewhere else."

 
Stack emphasizes that Dick's supports the second amendment, but asks elected officials to pass what he calls "common sense gun reform." Following Stack's announcement, Wednesday, Walmart and Kroger/Fred Meyer followed suit, saying they also would stop selling firearms to customers under the age of 21. 

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