DICK’S DESTROYED MILLIONS IN FIREARMS. No pun intended. Dick’s Sporting Goods decided to stop selling guns and hunting gear earlier this year.
After deciding not to sell firearms, Dick’s CEO Ed Stack decided to destroy the inventory. “You know what? If we really think these things should be off the street, we need to destroy them.”
Alternatively, the Nations largest outdoor retailer had two other options. One, sell the firearms back to the manufacturers for 80-85% of the original purchase price. Two, liquidate via store sales. Stack, out of fear for guns going to “the streets,” decided to destroy them.
Dick’s move to sell off their outdoor Field & Stream stores was probably a solid signal to their values. They are clearly defining their intended market, and it does not include families that love and enjoy the outdoors.
Throughout media coverage, the term “assault” is being foolishly applied to guns available to the general retail market. Grammatically, “assault” is a verb. An action. Not a noun. An inanimate object, such as a firearm, requires a person operator for there to be an assault.
Business Insider reported in an interview with CEO Ed Stack:
“We’re in this meeting and I said, ‘We can’t do that.'” [Sell the firearms.]
“We think these guns should be outlawed. We think that the ban that was in place between 1994 and 2004 should be reinstated.”
“I said, ‘The only thing we can do with them is destroy them.”
“So that’s what we did. We destroyed them all.”
The NRA Institute for Legislative Action reported:
“…Stack went so far as to formally collaborate with the Michael Bloomberg-funded Every Town for Gun Safety and to sign a letter endorsing gun control bills pending on Capitol Hill. His company even retained corporate lobbyists to press Congress for additional gun control.”
Indeed, Dick’s Sporting Goods has the right to run their business this way. So, what are your thoughts on this decision?
