Dick’s Sporting Goods is pulling its hunting departments from 440 more stores across the country, a year after the chain announced it would stop selling guns in 125 of its 700 locations.
The company announced the move in a press release Tuesday, along with its fourth-quarter earnings. The hunting gear and guns will be pulled sometime in the fiscal year 2020, but no specific date or information on which stores will be affected were provided.
Dick’s chairman and CEO Edward W. Stack said that stores in more rural areas rely on hunting gear and will continue to stock shelves in those areas.
“There are stores in more rural areas where hunting is an important part of people’s lives to feed themselves,” Stack said. “They hunt, not just for sport, but they hunt to feed their families. And as we’ve taken a look at that, we think that that’s important to continue to provide that.”
The company announced after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that it would stop selling any “assault-style” guns and high-capacity ammunition. The stores also implemented a policy that only allowed customers over the age of 21 to buy guns.
Dick’s took a financial hit for the move, with sales dropping 3.1% at the end of fiscal year 2019. Sales eventually ticked up, however, with Stack reporting Tuesday that the company saw “strong fourth quarter results” and “growth across each of our three primary categories of hardlines, apparel and footwear.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a group that works to “promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports,” voted unanimously in 2018 to expel Dick’s from its membership due to the company’s decisions on gun sales.
“It’s an unfortunate decision by Dick’s Sporting Goods to assign blame for the crimes of individuals to law-abiding gun owners in America. The overwhelming majority of gun owners keep and bear their arms legally and responsibly every day without incident,” Mark Oliva, NSSF’s director of public affairs, told the Washington Examiner.
