According to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dick’s Sporting Goods is destroying — not returning — any assault-style rifles they pull from shelves pursuant to their new policy, dramatically limiting the sale of guns Dick’s considers “unsafe.”
Typically, retailers who pull goods from their shelves return those goods to the manufacturer so they can be redistributed and sold at other stores. But Dick’s will instead destroy the rifles at its distributions sites and then send what’s left to a salvage yard. No one will ever own any of the so-called “assault-style rifles” once sold at Dick’s, and its partner store, Field & Stream.
“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 Dick’s spokeswoman told the Post-Gazette. “We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations.”
Dick’s decided to stop selling the rifles — and “high capacity magazines” — in February, after the mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. They immediately pulled their stock from shelves in all of their stores, including the 35 Field & Stream locations. The company also announced that it would no longer sell weapons of any kind to anyone under the age of 21.
The company is facing several lawsuits over the restriction.
For now, Dick’s says it’s happy taking the hit on product it already purchased. Gun manufacturers won’t lose the money, either, since the guns were already sold, wholesale, to Dick’s.