THE GOOD NEWS:<\/p>\n
One of the nation\u2019s most prominent gun retailers is putting its money where its mouth is, and taking a real stand against gun violence. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n After every mass shooting since Columbine in 1999, many\u00a0have\u00a0looked to their elected officials to do something about the violence, and they\u2019ve achieved virtually nothing. But after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, things are beginning to look different.\u00a0<\/p>\n While U.S. politicians are spinning their wheels and suggesting\u00a0ridiculous fixes for the country\u2019s mass shooting epidemic, its youth are speaking out, and some of its biggest businesses are taking action.<\/p>\n Since the shooting, dozens of companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA), including: First National Bank of Omaha, United\u00a0Airlines, Hertz, MetLife, and Symantec.<\/p>\n Now, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods, one of America\u2019s most prominent gun retailers (and GOOD Sports sponsor), is permanently changing its sales policy at more than 600\u00a0locations. While it stopped selling assault-style rifles at its namesake stores in 2012 after the Sandy Hook shooting,\u00a0it\u2019s now pulling them off the shelves at its\u00a035 subsidiary Field & Stream\u00a0locations\u00a0and online. It\u2019s also requiring all customers to be older than 21 to buy a firearm, and stopped selling high-capacity magazines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The company also taking a huge risk by taking a side in\u00a0the country\u2019s fierce\u00a0control debate. Dick\u2019s released a statement imploring elected officials to enact common sense gun reform and pass the following regulations:<\/p>\n \u2014 Ban assault-style firearms Dick\u2019s CEO Ed Stack announced the decision on ABC\u2019s Good Morning America on Wednesday, Feb. 28. During the interview, he admitted his company sold a shotgun\u00a0to the Parkland shooter in November, although it wasn\u2019t used in the massacre. \u201cWe did everything by the book. We did everything that the law required, and still he was able to buy a gun,\u201d Stack said. \u201cWhen we looked at that, we said the systems that are in place across the board just aren\u2019t effective enough to keep us from selling a gun like that.<\/p>\n The move was inspired, in part, by the brave students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who\u2019ve made passionate calls for action in the wake of the shooting. \u201cWhen we look at what those kids and the parents and the heroes in the school, what they did, our view was: If the kids can be brave enough to organize like this, we can be brave enough to get these [firearms] out of here,\u201d Stack said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dick\u2019s has a history of looking out for the interests of America\u2019s youth. In 2014, the retailer launched a $25 million commitment to help fund youth sports across the country. It also created a campaign on\u00a0Donors Choose where it will match up to $1.5 million in donations to help public and charter school sports teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dick’s Sporting Goods is a sponsor of Good Media Group but did not pay for the content of this news article.<\/p>\n Share image by Robyn Beck\/Getty Images. <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE GOOD NEWS: One of the nation\u2019s most prominent gun retailers is putting its money where its mouth is, and taking a real stand against gun violence. \u00a0 After every mass shooting since Columbine in 1999, many\u00a0have\u00a0looked to their elected officials to do something about the violence, and they\u2019ve achieved virtually nothing. But after a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\u2014 Raise the minimum age to purchase firearms to 21
\n\u2014 Ban high capacity magazines and bump stocks
\n\u2014 Require universal background checks that include relevant mental health information and previous interactions with the law
\n\u2014 Ensure a complete universal database of those banned from buying firearms
\n\u2014 Close the private sale and gun show loophole that waives the necessity of background checks<\/p>\n