Stricter Gun Control Measures Adopted By Both Walmart And Dick’s
Two major chain retailers announced stricter gun control measures in direct response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting.
Two of the USA’s leading gun sellers, Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods announced on Wednesday that they would be limiting their sale of firearms following recent debate about gun control measures.
Walmart announced late afternoon that no one under the age of 21 can buy guns or ammo at Walmart anymore. They also stated that they will no longer sell any guns “resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys”.
Walmart banned modern sporting rifles in 2015, first major step towards supporting stricter gun control measures.
Sales of “modern sporting rifles” at Walmart stopped in 2015, that ban included AR-15’s. Walmart only allows sales of handguns in Alaska. As they stated, Walmart “does not sell bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and similar accessories. We have a process to monitor our eCommerce marketplace and ensure our policies are applied”.
The CEO of Dick’s Sporting Good, Edward Stack announced on Wednesday stricter gun control measures on gun sales in each of its over 600 chains.
We deeply believe that this country’s most precious gift is our children. They are our future. We must keep them safe. Beginning today, DICK’S Sporting Goods is committed to the following: https://t.co/J4OcB6XJnu pic.twitter.com/BaTJ9LaCYe
— DICK’S Sporting Goods (@DICKS) February 28, 2018
“We don’t want to be a part of this story any longer,” Stack told NBC News in an interview. “We were so disturbed and saddened by what happened down there and watching those kids be so brave to walk out of that school and start to organized for gun reform… if they can be that brave then we can be that brave too.”
The announcements have been made two weeks after 17 students and staff members were killed during a school shooting in Parkland.
Dick’s publicly calls on politicians to adopt more gun control measures and address school shootings.
Dick’s Sporting Goods further called on politicians to adopt gun control measures similar to its newly announced store gun sale policies. It called on lawmakers to perform background checks and obtain more mental health and law enforcement interaction data in order to create a database of banned firearm buyers and to stop guns from being sold without background checks being done.
“Some will say these steps can’t guarantee tragedies like Parkland will never happen again,” said Stack in the statement. “They may be correct — but if common sense reform is enacted and even one life is saved, it will have been worth it.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York praised the company for their actions, saying: “I commend Dick’s Sporting Goods, a member of the New York family, for their leadership in taking smart measures to keep weapons out of the wrong hands,” Cuomo said in a statement.
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