NSSF kicks Dick’s Sporting Goods to the curb

The gun industry’s largest trade association kicked a major company to the curb this week.

Dick’s Sporting Goods will no longer be one of the 13,000 retailers and gun manufacturers represented by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, according to a news release published Friday.

The group’s board of directors voted unanimously to expel Dick’s after a string of decisions from Chief Executive Officer Edward Stack positioning the retailer as the corporate face of gun control in the wake of the Parkland massacre.

Stack led a wave of retailers who voluntarily banned rifles sales to customers under 21 two weeks after a teenage gunman murdered 17 with an AR-15. Stack pulled modern sporting rifles from the shelves of three dozen Field & Stream stores — the firearms were discontinued at more than 800 Dick’s locations in 2012 — and vowed to destroy all remaining inventory. The retailer’s hiring of Washington-based gun control lobbying firm just this week, however, appears to be the NSSF’s final straw.

“NSSF responded that business decisions should be individually made, but was nonetheless disappointed and the decision does not reflect the reality of the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners,” the organization said Friday.

Dick’s has not yet responded to Guns.com’s request for comment.

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