Reuters:

Dick’s Sporting Goods reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly same-store sales on Wednesday and forecast further declines this year, hit by tighter gun controls and a drop in Under Armour sales.

Shares in the company fell as much as 10 percent after it posted a 1.9 percent drop in same-store sales, bigger than analysts’ average estimate of a 0.62 percent dip.

Dick’s was one of the first retailers to stop selling assault rifles and high-capacity magazines as well as bar the sale of guns to people under age 21 following a massacre at a Florida high school in February.

The company had predicted that its hunting guns business would be pressurized by the change in policy but said the move should also attract more people to its stores.

Yep.  That’s what they said alright.  Somehow I doubt that this has anything to do with Under Armour sales.

I can’t think of a better company to be struggling.  Schadenfreude, I think they call it.

I had found wording to the effect that Henry Repeating Arms had taken a position on Dick’s Sporting Goods, but was unable to find an authoritative source or URL for this position.  I wrote them and got this reply.

Thank you for your inquiry regarding Dick’s Sporting Goods and for your enthusiastic support of the 2nd Amendment. Henry Repeating Arms has been and always will be an ardent and steadfast supporter of the Second Amendment. Our reputation speaks for itself. We share your concerns about how Dick’s is conducting itself. We are disappointed by their recent actions and puzzled by recent reports. Please note that we do not sell directly to Dick’s or to their Field & Stream stores and that we never have. We sell our firearms to federally licensed wholesale distributors who then, in turn, sell to retailers, a two-step distribution system. Manufacturers who have recently stated that they will stop selling their firearms directly to Dicks cannot control what the distributors sell to Dicks – and neither can we. We are attempting to gain some clarity from Dicks regarding these recent reports and their long-term position on firearm sales. As we continue to investigate and monitor their actions, and as we await more clarity from Dick’s, we are evaluating our options through the two-step distribution system. In the meantime, we have removed their stores from our list of recommended Henry dealers.

Best Regards,
Patrick Hall
Customer Service Manager
Henry Repeating Arms Company
59 E 1st Street
Bayonne, NJ 07002

Thank you for your response Mr. Hall.  I think Dick’s position is clear and I would be very surprised if anything changes.  I think sufficient clarity is available now to make a decision, and so we just watch to see what gun manufacturers do with this information.

Thanks again.

Guns.com:

Ohio-based MKS, whose products include Hi-Point Firearms and Inland M1911s, have announced they won’t sell to Dick’s and their affiliates on Second Amendment grounds.

MKS said the recent move by Dick’s to hire a government affairs group for the purpose of gun control lobbying, coupled with the big box retailer’s past choices to destroy their existing inventory of AR-15s and refuse firearm sales to those under age 21 put the two companies at odds when it came to the right to keep and bear arms.

“In recent months, Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, have shown themselves, in our opinion, to be no friend of Americans’ Second Amendment,” said Charles Brown, MKS president. “We believe that refusing to sell long guns to adults under age 21, while many young adults in our military are not similarly restricted, is wrong. We believe that villainizing modern sporting rifles in response to pressure from uninformed, anti-gun voices is wrong. We believe that hiring lobbyists to oppose American citizens’ freedoms secured by the Second Amendment is wrong.”

I doubt MKS sells that much inventory to Dick’s.  But this next one hurts.

NORTH HAVEN, CT – O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., a leading American firearms manufacturer, announced today its decision to discontinue selling products to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring of gun control lobbyists in April 2018.

Effective immediately, O.F. Mossberg & Sons will not accept any future orders from Dick’s Sporting Goods or Field & Stream, and is in the process of evaluating current contractual agreements.

“It has come to our attention that Dick’s Sporting Goods recently hired lobbyists on Capitol Hill to promote additional gun control.” said Iver Mossberg, Chief Executive Officer of O.F. Mossberg & Sons. “Make no mistake, Mossberg is a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution and our Second Amendment rights, and we fully disagree with Dick’s Sporting Goods’ recent anti-Second Amendment actions.”

I have written a note to Mossberg Media Relations as follows.

I have no doubt my readers will ask about whether this decision is determinative and controlling, or just applies to firearms ordered from Dick’s bypassing distributors.  Or another way to ask the question is this.  Will Mossberg enforce this decision with distributors too, requiring them to refrain from selling to Dick’s?

As of this writing I have not received a response.  But it appears as if these two manufacturers aren’t so worried about “a conspiracy in restraint of trade.”  What is Dick’s going to do – fight the lawyers from every gun manufacturer in America?

Good for MKS and Mossberg.  Let’s keep piling it on with other gun manufacturers.  I hope Mossberg’s lawyers can work out not supplying them with existing contracts.

Tell me if you would your interest in these subjects.

I’ll give you equal time to explain why you’re interested in these subjects.  Is that a deal?

FB:

To All Our Loyal Fans & Customers: We have had a number of inquiries about whether we plan to discontinue sales to Dick’s Sporting Goods. We do not sell to Dick’s. Ruger utilizes a two-step distribution system in which we sell to independent, federally licensed distributors, who sell to independent, federally licensed retailers. Because the distributors are independent, we cannot control where they sell the products they acquire. However, we share your concerns about how Dick’s is conducting itself and are disappointed by their recent actions. Given Dick’s recent pronouncements, we expect it is safe to assume that you will not be seeing Ruger firearms in their stores. #Ruger #firearms

I just don’t know whether I believe this.  All Ruger – or any other manufacturer – has to do is require of their distributors that they not sell to Dick’s Sporting Goods.  If they are caught doing that, then Ruger does not use those distributors any more.

In fact, this could all be set up in a contractual agreement.  What’s so hard about that?  Why is Ruger dismissing this as if we’re stupid and can’t figure it out?

I took this picture today at a local Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Edward, I told you that you couldn’t survive as a golf shop, didn’t I?  We’ve had this discussion, I know we have.

On a related note, I met a temporary manager of a local Gander Outdoors in Gastonia over the weekend (Rodney, who is the store manager in Tampa).  Apparently, the Gander in Gastonia is profitable, and they want to reopen it with all new firearms, all new gear, a new bike shop, new camping gear, and so on.

He told me “You know what’s funny?  I worked at the third Dick’s ever opened, and you know who my manager was?  Edward Stack.  It’s a shame what’s happened.”  We agreed that if he could wait a year (which they can’t because they’re going to reopen soon) they could probably hire most of the employees at Dick’s right down the road.

Edward, what happened to you?  Did the HR and corporate communications folks you hired change your soul, or have you always been a collectivist?

The Washington Post:

Edward W. Stack is chief executive of Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Throughout history, the United States has been a beacon of hope for the world — especially for people who appreciate and respect that we are a country founded on laws that have been enacted to guard our freedom and keep us safe.

As a gun owner, I support the Second Amendment and understand why, for many, the right to bear arms is as American as baseball and apple pie. But I also agree with what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his majority opinion in 2008’s landmark Heller case: “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.” It is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

It is clear we have a problem with the gun laws in this country. They are not squarely focused on keeping all of us safe — especially our children.

There continue to be mass shootings — at our schools, churches and entertainment venues. Following each of these senseless, tragic events there’s a great deal of idle, fruitless talk in the halls of Congress, and then the conversation quickly comes to an end.

It’s our great hope and belief that this time will be different. It has to be different.

Maybe it’s because the survivors of the Parkland, Fla., massacre — and the thousands of students who made their feelings known for 17 minutes last week — are standing up and shouting “enough is enough” and “never again.” They are demanding that our elected officials come together to find solutions. These brave young men and women are not going away.

In the weeks since we at Dick’s Sporting Goods announced plans to stop selling assault-style rifles, plans to only sell firearms to those over 21 and other new policies, we have been striving to keep this conversation going. We have met with a number of lawmakers and have talked with many of our peers in the retail industry. We have spoken with strong-willed advocacy groups and visited with families in Parkland.

It is becoming increasingly apparent through our conversations that there continues to be deep skepticism that anything of substance will be done.

Some members of Congress are committed to change, but not enough are willing to set aside partisanship to find a solution. I continue to call on lawmakers in both parties to talk with each other with the expressed intent to act.

What’s also surprising is how many citizens and leaders in our government are not aware of the loopholes and inconsistences in our firearms laws.

Here are some to think about:

●You can’t buy a handgun until you’re 21, but you can buy an assault-style rifle at 18.

●You can buy a gun on the Internet from someone in your state without a background check, but a background check is required to buy a gun on the Internet from someone in a different state.

●Few states provide a list of those in their state who are banned from buying a gun to other states.

●A person deemed too dangerous to fly on a commercial plane is nonetheless legally permitted to purchase a gun.

We understand this is a complex issue and Congress has a number of constituencies with broad agendas. But we hope Congress will take notice of not only what students are saying but also what the private sector is telling it. Two of the three largest firearms retailers in the country have publicly said we are implementing our own policies for the sale of firearms.

This issue transcends our company’s bottom line. We suspected that speaking out would have a negative impact on our business. But this was about our values and standing up for what we think is right.

After we announced our new firearms policy, we were gratified that Walmart, Kroger, L.L. Bean and REI showed courage and leadership by announcing their own new policies. We hope others in the private and public sectors join us in this effort.

A group of us in corporate America have taken a stand, made hard choices and enacted reforms on our own because we firmly believe it’s the right thing to do for our kids and for our country.

The kids in Florida and across the nation have taken a stand and been brave enough to make their voices heard.

The majority of Americans are demanding that members of Congress take a stand and be brave enough to do their jobs.