When Dick’s Sporting Goods said it would no longer sell modern sporting rifles at its Field & Stream stores following the Valentine’s Day shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, one question was what would happen to the unsold firearms in its inventory.
Typically a retailer may return unsold merchandise to the manufacturer. But in this case, Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to destroy them.
“We are in the process of destroying all firearms and accessories that are no longer for sale as a result of our February 28th policy change,” a spokeswoman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations.”
The so-called assault-style rifles will be destroyed at the company’s distribution centers and the parts sent to a salvage company to be recycled, the Findlay-based retailer added. The company did not say how much merchandise would be included.
In addition to the decision on pulling assault-style rifles from its 35 specialty Field & Stream locations, the sporting goods chain said in February that it also would no longer sell high capacity magazines or sell firearms to anyone under 21 years old following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Dick’s is facing two lawsuits over the new age limit on firearm purchases.
This is not the first time that the sporting goods retailer has changed its gun sale policies.
Following the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the retailer had pulled modern sporting rifles from its namesake stores nationwide. When it later opened its specialty Field & Stream stores, it introduced the modern sporting rifles to its product line there.
The company did not comment on what it did with the firearms it pulled from its Dick’s stores in 2012.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh: sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com; 412-263-4910; Twitter: @StephanieRit
First Published: April 9, 2018, 3:51 p.m.
