EXPOSED: Dick’s Sporting Goods’ history of using dead school kids to promote their brand name

Social media is alive with reports of how Dick’s Sporting Goods announcement of banning the sales of AR-15 rifles is deja vu all over again.

CNN reporter Susan Candiotti in a December 18, 2012 article titled Sporting goods chain suspends sale of certain semi-automatic after shooting wrote:

Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the world, says it has removed all guns from its store nearest to Newtown, Connecticut, and is suspending the sale of certain kinds of semi-automatic rifles from its chains nationwide.

Dick’s did this after the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. But it appears that taking these rifles off of their shelves didn’t last very long.

Here’s the problem, Dick’s continues to sell AR-15 rifles in one of its franchises.

Forbes reporter Clare O’Connor in an August 20, 2013 article titled Despite Self-Imposed Ban, Dick’s Sporting Goods Selling AR-15 Rifles At New Offshoot reported:

Dick’s, the country’s largest outdoor sports retailer, responded to the [Sandy Hook Elementary] tragedy by pulling semi-automatic guns – ‘modern sporting rifles’, in industry parlance – off shelves in their 500-plus stores “out of respect for the victims and their families,” per a December statement.

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Dick’s has kept its word, though: a search of its website shows semi-automatics like the Bushmaster remain off the menu. The outdoor giant (2012 revenues: $5.89 billion) is, however, selling these modern sporting rifles at its brand new offshoot, Field & Stream. The first of these specialty hunting and fishing stores opened in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania this past weekend, with Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson on hand to sign autographs.

Gun news site The Firearm Blog first posited that AR-15 rifles like the kind Lanza used would be available at Field & Stream despite the Dick’s ban on these weapons in a post earlier this month. The team at social news outlet Vocativ attended Friday’s grand opening in Pennsylvania to see for themselves:

We weren’t the only ones looking for an AR-15. The line to purchase these firearms was so long that customers were required to take numbers. And the selection was excellent! So excellent, in fact, that we decided to take pictures. The guns for sale included the Remington AR-15s, S&W AR-15s as well as Stag and DPMS AR-15s. Oh, and don’t forget the Bushmaster used by Lanza.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has now used two school shootings to promote its brand name. You would think they would have learned from their first failure.

As O’Conner reported, “Industry experts say Dick’s has to sell these weapons at its new spinoff to remain competitive. “I’m not surprised,” said James Chartier, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc who covers Dick’s Sporting Goods and competitors like Cabela’s. “If you want to be authentic to the customer, you have to sell that product. You can’t be seen as caving in to political pressure.”

We expect this Dick’s ban will fade away as soon as do the headlines on the Parkland shooting. Can you say crocodile tears?

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