Gun Sales Could End At Maryland Sporting Goods Chain

Dick’s Sporting Goods, which banned assault-style weapons from all of its stores after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting last year, said this week it will remove firearms from 125 of its lowest-performing stores later this year. That represents about 17 percent Dick’s stores, but it’s not yet known if stores in Maryland will be affected.

The chain operates about a dozen stores in Maryland. They are:

• Village At Waugh Chapel, 1417 South Main Chapel Way, Gambrills
• Governor Plaza, 6633 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie
• Columbia Crossing, 6221 Columbia Crossing Circle, Columbia
• Wheaton Plaza, 11160 Veirs Mill Road, Suite P100, Wheaton
• Chatham Station Shopping Center, 9220 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City
• St. Charles Towne Center, 11080 Mall Circle Road, Waldorf
• 17780 Garland Groh Blvd., Hagerstown
• Hunt Valley Towne Plaza, 118 Shawan Road, Cockeysville
• Nottingham Square, 5220 Campbell Blvd., Baltimore
• Town Mall, 400 North Center Street, Westminster
• Macphail Crossing East, 540 West Macphail Road, Bel Air
• Washingtonian Center, 2 Grand Corner Avenue, Gaithersburg

Ed Stack, chief executive officer of the Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based chain, said on a quarterly earnings call that if the decision works out well in the 125 stores, it will remove hunting gear — which includes rifles, ammunition and accessories associated with hunting — from even more stores, Bloomberg reported.

Last year, Dick’s gave the policy a trial run in 10 stores, resulting in a rise in fourth-quarter sales at those locations, Stack said on the call. The company replaced the hunting items with kayaks and other outdoor gear.

After it was revealed that accused Parkland shooter Nikolaus Cruz purchased a weapon from a Dick’s store, the chain removed not only assault-style weapons from its inventory, but also high-capacity magazines. The gun Cruz purchased was not used in the attack, which killed 17 people, but Stack said at the time that it could have been, The New York Times reported.

At the time, Dick’s also raised the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21.

That decision by Dick’s, once a major seller of firearms, angered many, including the powerful National Rifle Association, which called it a “strange business model.” The National Sports Foundation booted Dick’s from its membership rolls last year, citing “conduct detrimental” to the organization’s goals, and gun owners called for a mass boycott of the chain.

Stack was among four CEOs who signed a letter supporting the universal gun control bill passed last month by the U.S. House of Representatives. He also joined Everytown For Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that advocates for gun control.

Stack made clear on the call that the backlash from pro-Second Amendment groups was a “meaningful driver” in sales declines. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2018, net income fell to $102.6 million. This year, the company expects its sales to remain flat or increase by 2 percent.

The chain operates 729 stores under the Dick’s Sporting Goods logo, 94 Golf Galaxy stores and 35 Field & Stream Stores.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. And like Patch on Facebook!)