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One of America’s biggest gun retailers is reportedly exploring halting firearms sales and moving out of the business entirely.
Earlier this year, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced it was pulling guns, ammunition and firearms accessories out of 125 of its stores where sales were down and said it would study the impact on overall performance.
Now the company, which has a total of more than 720 stores across the US, is conducting tests to assess whether to completely pull out of the hunting category, reports CNN.
The company is expected to share the results of the test publicly on Thursday, when it will also announce its quarterly results.
The move would come amid renewed debate on gun control following the recent deadly shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio earlier this month and Gilroy, northern California in July.
It is not the first time the company has considered the idea. In early 2018, the company considered halting gun sales after the deadly high school shooting that killed 17 in Parkland, Florida, after it was revealed the teenage gunman had bought a gun from the store.
“We did have a conversation about that,” the company’s CEO Ed Stack told CNN earlier this year. “At the time we felt it was a part of our DNA and we should stay in it.”
While they did not stop selling guns entirely, in February 2018 the company announced it would stop selling assault-style rifles, ordering its stock to be destroyed, and high-capacity magazines and raised the minimum age for firearm sales from 18 to 21.
Walmart, which stopped selling assault-style weapons in 2015, also tightened its firearm and ammunition controls following the Parkland shooting – raising the minimum age to 21 and removing airsoft guns and toy weapons from its website.
In an initial test, in autumn last year, Dick’s replaced hunting equipment in 10 of its stores with other stock and found those stores “outperformed the balance of the chain pretty meaningfully”.
On Wednesday, March for Our Lives, founded by Parkland survivors, published a policy that calls for expansive reform of guns laws in the US.
The proposal, called Peace Plan for a Safer America, includes a plan to cut civilian firearms by 30%, a call to re-examine the 2008 supreme court decision permitting private citizens to have handguns in the home and the creation of a compulsory federal buyback scheme for assault weapons.
“The time for comprehensive and sweeping reform is now,” it states.
While polls indicate there is public support for tighter gun control such as universal background checks and gun licensing, the subject is often divided on political lines.
March for Our Lives wants to take the focus away from party affiliations. “This plan is not geared toward Democrats or Republicans. It’s not about a party, it’s not about politics, it’s about saving lives and prioritising that,” said Eve Levenson, the organisation’s federal programs manager.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump appears to have gone back on previous comments he made in support of tightening background checks on gun sales.
Following the El Paso and Dayton shootings earlier this month, he said there was a need for “intelligent background checks”. But after National Rifle Association (NRA) and Republican lawmakers – including a reported 30 minute phone call with NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre, he seemed to have changed his mind, claiming on Tuesday that America already has “very strong background checks”.
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