MEMPHIS, Tenn – Dick’s Sporting Goods on Germantown Parkway in Memphis still has plenty of guns for sale.
But don’t look for high-powered rifles.
The company’s CEO says they are done selling them and high-capacity magazine clips after the mass school shooting in Florida.
So what do customers think?
“I think the laws totally need to be changed and the accessibility of them and how easy it is to get them and everything,” one Dick’s customer told us.
“I think that is a good idea for me. It can save life. It can save the community,” another Dick’s customer said.
Edward Stack, the CEO of Dick’s, says the company needed to take a stand after finding out it sold the Parkland , Florida shooter a weapon at a Dick’s store.
It wasn’t the gun used in the Parkland school shooting, but the shooter was still able to buy a gun from them.
“From a legal standpoint we did everything we were supposed to do and somehow this kid was still able to buy a gun from us and we said we just don’t want to be a part of this story any longer,” said Stack.
Dick’s hopes its move spurs a conversation about putting a stop to gun violence.
But some say it will do something else.
“That’s gonna drive sales way on up there. They are starting to fly off the wall now as we speak,” says Danny Metcalf, who own Bull Frog Corner Gun and Pawn Shop in Horn Lake. He says his gun store sells the 2nd largest volume of guns in Mississippi.
He has seen a boom demand in assault type rifles and is getting shipments in daily.
He doesn’t expect it to slow down.
“It’s not the solution stop selling them. You can walk in, grab any gun and commit a crime with it if you want to. So stop selling them is not gonna stop anything. They will just go to the next store, anywhere they can get em,” said Metcalf.
But Dick’s says stopping the assault style rifle sales works for them.
“We are not trying to impart our decision on anyone else. This feels really good for us and we are comfortable with our decision,” said Stack.
Dick’s says it also will no longer sale guns to anyone under 21 years of age, regardless of local laws.
No word on whether other sporting goods stores plan to follow suit.
