Dick's Sporting Goods, US gun retailer, stops selling assault rifles

Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced the removal of assault-style weapons from its stores and has raised the age for gun buyers to over 21.

CEO Ed Stack made the announcement on ABC’s Good Morning America show on Wednesday, the same day that students were set to return to class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after last month's shooting.

The gunman allegedly behind the shooting had purchased a firearm from the retailer last November, although it was not the one used in the massacre. Even so, the CEO said it had affected him and his colleagues deeply.

"We did everything by the book. We did everything that the law required, and still he was able to buy a gun. And when we looked at that, we said the systems that are in place across the board just aren't effective enough to keep us from selling a gun like that," Stack said.

"And so we've decided we're not going to sell the assault-type rifles any longer."

Dick's had already stopped selling the assault-style rifles from its namesake stores in 2012, after a lone shooter killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in the US state of Connecticut, and now it was moving to remove them from subsidiary Field & Stream stores. Stack said that this time the removal would be permanent.

The company also called on authorities to reform their gun policies, asking for the following regulations: Banning assault rifles, raising the minimum purchase age to 21, banning high capacity magazines and bump stocks, requiring universal background checks on mental health and previous interactions with the law, a universal database for those banned from having firearms and closing private sales and gun shows so as to avoid loopholes.

Stack acknowledged that the decision would cause controversy, "it isn't going to make everyone happy. But when we look at what those kids and the parents and the heroes in the school, what they did, our view was: If the kids can be brave enough to organize like this, we can be brave enough to get these firearms out of here."

"We're staunch supporters of the Second Amendment," he added.

"I'm a gun owner myself. We've just decided that based on what's happened and with these guns, we don't want to be part of this story."

Dick’s investors were unfazed by the decision pushing its shares up by as much as 2.2% in New York trading.