Dick’s Sporting Goods has suspended the sale of some semi-automatic rifles from its stores across the country, including its four Long Island locations.
CNN reported that the sporting goods chain made the decision out of respect for the victims and families of Friday’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
In the shooting, 27 people were killed, including 20 school children.
"We continue to extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this terrible tragedy," the retailer said in statement.
The company has four locations on Long Island: Commack, Huntington, Lake Grove and Garden City.
It is not known how long Dick’s will keep the suspension in place for guns the retailer calls “modern sporting rifles.”
The decision by Dick’s to remove certain guns from its stores comes amid reports that Adam Lanza, the gunman in the Newtown shooting, attempted to purchase a gun from a Dick’s store in Danbury, Connecticut. That location is just to the west of Newtown.
"At this time, reports that the suspect visited one of our stores last week have not been confirmed by law enforcement," the company said in a statement to CNN. "Based on our records, we can confirm that no firearms were sold to the suspect identified in this case."
Do we we want to prevent future massacres of 6 and 7 year old children, or is it more important for people to be able to buy and possess weapons with rapid rates of fire, and large magazines of ammunition? We need to keep these weapons in our police and military forces; they are not needed for hunting, and they are not needed for personal defense. The simpler kinds of hunting rifles, and shotguns, and pistols, would still be permitted, and legitimate recreational and defense uses would therefore be provided for. Thanks for contributing to more rational thought, Support.
Unless there is a Federal ban on assault weapons (which definition provided earlier by others, and I tend to agree, would be a weapon which has a rapid rate of fire, and a large magazine of ammunition) it will be useless to have a few states banning such weapons. They have to be kept out of civilian hands in all states in order to protect against future massacres of little children.
Shot 7 killed 2 FACT: Firing that many shots with a bolt action rifle takes a decent amount of time