North Carolinians React To Dick's Sporting Goods Assault-Style Rifle Ban

A leading sporting goods chain announced Wednesday that it will end sales of all assault-style rifles effective immediately. Dick's Sporting Goods will also stop selling any gun to anyone under 21. Chief Executive Edward Stack has made clear that the company's new policy was made in direct response to the recent mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.  

At the Dick's Sporting Goods at Winston-Salem's Hanes Mall, reaction to the move was mixed. Susan Stewart drove 45 minutes to this store location from her home in Elkin, North Carolina, to show her support for the company's decision.

“The cowardice on this issue from Washington and our elected leaders has got to stop,” says Stewart. “People are going to have to stand up to lobbyists like the NRA and do what's right, and ban assault-style weapons in this country, and stiffen background checks for weapons.”

The 58-year-old medical office administrator says she owns several different types of weapons. She and her family shoot skeet and go bird hunting from time to time. But, she adds, they do not own assault weapons.

“They're made to kill people and they kill people very rapidly and they have no place being in the common ownership. I don't think we need to take guns away from people, but I think we need to look forward ten years down the road. If we ban assault weapons now, little by little, there will be fewer available ten, twenty years down the road for my grandchildren.”

Retired habilitation technician Felicia White lives in Winston-Salem, and holds a very different view on the store's ban. Her family works for the police department and she has relatives serving in the military as well.

“I am totally against it,” she says. “I don't think that guns kill people. I think that people kill people. My family is a complete firearms family, and we're very careful with the firearms, and have no intentions [of] harming anybody. My older grandson told me, ‘Nana, get out of that store. Don't by anything from there because they're against firearms.' He said he will never shop here again.”

Avid hunter Jeff Johnson of Mount Airy, says he has no problem with the assault-style rifle ban.

“You don't need them guns to deer hunt,” says Johnson. “Just keep what you need to hunt with. You know, if you're that scared, just stay at the house.”

But the store's decision to raise the age limitation to 21 for gun purchases rubs Johnson the wrong way.

“If you can fight for your country at 18, you ought to be able to walk in there and buy anything they got. If you can die for your country at 18, then you ought to be able to do what you want to do.”

Dick's Sporting Goods is the nation's largest sporting goods retailer. The company's ban on assault-style rifles, and its new age limit are effective immediately.