If you buy anything from Dick’s Sporting Goods, you’re funding anti-gun lobbying

Springfield Armory, a major manufacturer of handguns and rifles, announced on Thursday that it was severing all ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods following reports that the retailer had retained three lobbyists to push Congress to restrict the Second Amendment. Dick’s Sporting Goods has now fully-abandoned hunters, firearms enthusiasts, competitive shooters and anyone else fond of their Second Amendment rights by taking their anti-gun zealotry to an unbelievable level – they’ve now hired three lobbyists whose sole purpose is to convince Congress to pass anti-gun legislation.

The Sporting Goods retailer has recently banned AR-15 sales in its stores, forbid the sale of any rifle to persons under 21, prohibited the sale of certain magazines, decided to destroy it’s current stock of AR-15’s instead of returning them for credit and now taken the extreme measure of hiring three anti-gun lobbyists from Glover Park Group.

The lobbying records show Dick’s hired two Democrats and one Republican from Glover Park Group, a DC-based government affairs firm, for “[l]obbying related to gun control.” No other policy issues were listed in the disclosure form filed by the firm. The disclosure forms show Dick’s pro-gun control lobbying effort began official on April 27, 2018. The official registration form noting Dick’s retention of Glover to push for gun control was filed on Monday morning.

Dick’s knew that their previous anti-gun efforts would have impacts on their in-store traffic and ultimately their sales figures.

“There’s going to be some pushback and we expected that,” said CEO Edward Stack, in an earnings call with Wall Street analysts, according to CNN. “There are going to be the people who don’t shop us anymore for anything.”

By pushing their anti-gun agenda further, it is likely that any hunters or sport shooters who considered giving the retailer a chance to come back from the dark side will now give up and switch stores or order their boots, gloves, hats, ammunition and other gear from other retailers.

The move has caused vendors to re-think relationships with Dick’s.

Springfield Armory, a major manufacturer of handguns and rifles, announced on Thursday that it was severing all ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods following reports that the retailer had retained three lobbyists to push Congress to restrict the Second Amendment.

And on Friday, the National Shooting Sports Foundation expelled Dick’s from its member rolls.

“The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industries, Board of Governors today unanimously voted to expel Dick’s Sporting Goods from membership for conduct detrimental to the best interests of the Foundation,” the group announced.

Dick’s sales missed projections last quarter and this newest ill-conceived move will likely cost them in the next.

The retailer is already facing a lawsuit for the age restriction citing age discrimination. Federal and state laws allow the sale of a rifle to persons 18 years of age so the retailer has chosen to refuse service solely based on age which is illegal in the state in which the suit was filed.