Dick's cuts off sales of assault-style rifles in stores

NEW YORK (AP) — Dick's Sporting Goods will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21 years old.

The announcement today comes two weeks after the school massacre in Parkland, Fla.

"When we saw what the kids were going through and the grief of the parents and the kids who were killed in Parkland, we felt we needed to do something," Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said on ""Good Morning America."

Dick's, a major gun retailer, had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores after the Sandy Hook school shooting. But Dick's owns dozens of its Field & Stream stores, where there has been no such ban in place.

In a letter released today, Stack wrote, "''We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens. But we have to help solve the problem that's in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America – our kids."

Nickolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people in Florida, mostly students, had purchased a shotgun at a Dick's store in November 2017, Stack said.

"It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting," Stack wrote. "But it could have been. Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens."