Opinion
Fairfax, VA – -(Ammoland.com)- Ed Stack, the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, wants you to know he’s committed to keeping AR-15s “off the street.” But he’s also committed (for the time being) to selling other types of firearms.
That’s the genius of Ed Stack. He’s perfectly capable of holding two contradictory opinions at the same time. He’ll take one sort of gun buyer’s money and then lecture another on the evils of firearms.
We call that being a hypocrite.
But for Ed Stack, it’s just being Dick’s.
Recently, Ed took to the airwaves to explain in an interview with CBS News how he made his decision upon finding out that the criminal responsible for the Parkland attack had previously purchased a shotgun from Dick’s. If you tried to follow the “reasoning” of the conversation (if not the words actually spoken), it went something like this:
Ed: We sold the bad guy a shotgun. And I said, “We’re done.’”
Reporter: But that wasn’t the gun he used.
Ed: But it could have been.
Reporter: So you were done with shotguns.
Ed: No, we were done with AR-15s.
Reporter: So you sold the bad guy an AR-15, too?
Ed: No, but we could have.
Reporter: So you’re not selling AR-15s or shotguns.
Ed: No, we’re just not selling AR-15s.
Reporter: But you said he could have used a shotgun.
Ed: That’s right.
Reporter: But you’re still selling shotguns.
Ed: That’s right. But we’re not selling AR-15s.
Ed went on to say that he figured at the time his voluntary gun control policies would cost the company about a “quarter of a billion dollars” in losses. He turned out to be right, or pretty close, he noted.
And he continued by explaining that after removing $5 million worth of perfectly good, perfectly lawful semi-automatic rifles from Dick’s inventory, he turned them into scrap metal.
Why?
Because, according to Ed Stack, “If we really think these things should be off the street, we need to destroy them.”
We don’t think Dick’s ever considered just leaving the guns out on the street.
But even if Ed believed that the federally-mandated background check process was an inadequate safeguard to keep the semi-automatic rifles “off of the street,” he had options other than destroying valuable company property at company expense.
He could have, for example, donated the guns to cash-strapped law enforcement agencies across the country. Then they could have been used to help round up real crime guns from real criminals on the street and elsewhere. Maybe Dick’s could have even qualified for a tax deduction.
Instead, for all Ed knows, the scrap metal might just be melted down and repurposed into new semi-automatic rifles for sale by a competitor who defers to the choices of its law-abiding customers, not to the choices of gun control advocates who don’t shop at firearm retailers.
Ed Stack told CBS News the future of gun sales at Dick’s is under “strategic review.” So far, he’s removed all firearms from more than 100 of the company’s 720 stores.
Meanwhile, many gun buyers and Second Amendment supporters have removed all of their business from all of the company’s stores. As Hot Air reports, “Three years ago the company’s stock was trading at sixty bucks per share. This week it’s hovering around 38 dollars.”
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
I see it time and time again. It’s starts like it did for that online dating site called “Farmers Only.” That’s when they realize they’ve alienated 90% of the buying public, who then say you don’t have to be a farmer to use their services. Well, guess what? You’re stuck with farmers because everyone else has become accustomed to you only offering your services to farmers. Therefore, no self-respecting city slicker would ever bother to use anything that Farmers Only has to offer. The same holds true for self-respecting gun owners ever bothering to again shop at Dicks. Just like… Read more »
I don’t need a thing that the dicks at Dicks has offered for sale,I will however pull a cork in celebration on the day they announce the shuttering of their doors for good.
Ed Stack is the typical democrat! If a democrat does not like something they want it banned for everyone. If a conservative does not like something they just don’t buy it and therefore don’t have it. But don’t care if someone else has it or really likes it. The conservative attitude is called freedom while the democrat attitude is called a dictatorship. Any restriction restricting having a firearm is unconstitutional. That is exactly what “shall not be infringed” means. Keep and bear also means we can own and walk around with a gun on us and it can legally be… Read more »
The day before Mr. Stack made his final announcement I was in a Dick’s, saw an AR-15 on a rack and found myself thinking “I wonder how long that will be there?” That was my last visit to a Dick’s. I did send a message via my Dicks rewards card and have received no mailings since, so I guess they got the message.
I was lucky in that a better substitute, Sportsman’s Warehouse opened about a mile from Dick’s a few days later.
It does my heart good to see a company DESTROY itself in an attempt to become part of the communist party.
Well, that’s our problem too, too many hypocrites. There are people in the “gun world” who think and act just like mr dick. He feels like the shotgunners are generally wealthier, older waterfowlers. Hell, there are congressman and senators who enjoy the use of shotguns, it’s an aristocracy thing ya know. A distant second would be bolt action rifles. They belong to the white subhuman white deer hunters and whaaaaaaat down at the bottom are semiautomatic and ar15 types who are just the scum of the earth. Whether or not he or we admit it that’s how we are all… Read more »