By Rachel Siegel February 28 at 10:15 AM 

Dick’s Sporting Goods will no longer sell assault-style firearms, will ban high-capacity magazines and will not sell any guns to people younger than 21, chief executive Edward W. Stack said Wednesday.

Stack appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday morning, two weeks after a mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people and reinvigorated a national debate about gun control. The alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, bought a gun from a Dick’s store in November, Stack said during the television interview.

Although the weapon purchased at the Dick’s outlet was not the one used in the massacre, Stack said his company was moved to act. 

Dr. Babak Sarani, director of trauma and acute care surgery at George Washington University Hospital, explains what bullets do to the human body. (Bastien Inzaurralde, Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)

 

Stack’s announcement carried both symbolic and retail heft as companies — including sporting goods stores and airlines — have been pressured to drop special discounts and other ties to the gun industry and the National Rifle Association.

After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, Dick’s discontinued sales of assault-style rifles from its main stores. But the firearms went back into circulation a few months later at Dick’s outdoor and hunting chain, Field & Stream. A statement said those weapons would be removed from all 35 Field & Stream locations.

Dan Primack

✔@danprimack

They did this after Sandy Hook too. Then, when people stopped paying attention, they started again. https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/968825812756697088 … 

 Stack said he is now urging Congress to put aside partisan politics and enact swift changes to gun laws. A statement called on those in office to ban assault-style firearms, ban high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, and require universal background checks that “include relevant mental health information and previous interactions with the law.” The statement also demanded a comprehensive database of people banned from buying firearms and the closure of the private sale and gun show loophole that waives background checks.

The company drew wide-ranging support on Twitter in the hours after the announcement, with many people saying Dick’s had won them over as new lifelong customers. Just before 9:30 a.m., the NRA tweeted that “bans do nothing but infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

Dick’s sales decision would “not make everyone happy,” Stack said. But when asked whether the company would ever reverse its position, Stack offered a staunch “never.”

“Our view was if the kids can be brave enough to organize like this, we can be brave enough to take these out of there,” Stack said.