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- Dick's Sporting Goods is destroying the assault-style guns that it removed from stores in February.
- Dick's announced that it would stop selling assault-style rifles and raise the minimum age requirement for purchasing a firearm in its stores to 21 following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
- Federal guidelines for destroying guns require the crushing, cutting, or breaking of the gun parts — typically by torch rather than saw or other tool — to prevent its future use as a firearm.
Dick's Sporting Goods is destroying its unsold assault-style guns after announcing in February that it would stop selling the weapons.
"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 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations."
The company told the Post-Gazette that it would recycle the gun materials after destroying them at its distribution centers. Typically, companies will sell unsold merchandise back to manufacturers.
Federal guidelines for destroying guns require the crushing, cutting, or breaking of the gun parts — typically by torch rather than saw or other tool — to prevent its future use as a firearm.
Dick's announced in late February that it would stop selling assault-style rifles and raise the minimum age requirement for purchasing a firearm in its stores to 21. The policy was implemented in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff members.
"We're staunch supporters of the Second Amendment — I'm a gun owner myself," Dick's CEO Ed Stack said on "Good Morning America" at the time. "We don't want to be a part of this story, and we have eliminated these guns permanently."
Dick's sold the guns at its 35 Field & Stream stores, which focus on hunting and fishing products.
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