Dick's Sporting Goods Stops Selling Assault-Style Weapons

Late last week, after coming under attack on social media for their ties to the National Rifle Association, a number of major companies, including Hertz car rental, MetLife insurance and Delta Air Lines, publicly ended those relationships, issuing brief, carefully phrased statements.

But Edward Stack, the 63-year-old chief executive of Dick’s whose father founded the store in 1948, is deliberately steering his company directly into the storm, making clear that the company’s new policy was a direct response to the Florida shooting.

“When we saw what happened in Parkland, we were so disturbed and upset,” Mr. Stack said in an interview Tuesday evening. “We love these kids and their rallying cry, ‘enough is enough.’ It got to us.”

He added, “We’re going to take a stand and step up and tell people our view and, hopefully, bring people along into the conversation.”

Mr. Stack said he hoped that conversation would include politicians. As part of its stance, Dick’s is calling on elected officials to enact what it called “common sense gun reform’’ by passing laws to raise the minimum age to purchase guns to 21, to ban assault-type weapons and so-called bump stocks, and to conduct broader universal background checks that include mental-health information and previous interactions with law enforcement.

A line is being drawn in the sand over gun control policies. Companies are preemptively making corporate policy changes regardless of Federal regulations, making an earnest statement in the midst of national, political turmoil.

One company, FedEx, has taken an alternative approach to the sociopolitical relationships in American commerce. On Monday, the company tweeted in response to calls for them to renounce their relationship with the NRA:

https://twitter.com/FedEx/status/968238354688102400

FedEx essentially released a statement admitting they disagree with the NRA's stance on "assault" rifles, but that FedEx refuses to economically discriminate against the NRA because FedEx "does not and will not deny service or discriminate against any legal entity regardless of their policy positions or political views."

Then there are companies like HotelPlanner that are completely standing with the NRA, honoring its customers and their beliefs.

Via CNBC:

HotelPlanner.com CEO and co-founder Tim Hentschel said he's not interested in mixing business and politics.

"If you ask us to be part of your boycott war, that's not what we're about," Hentschel said in response to the list of companies that have said they will no longer do business with the National Rifle Association. "We're about hospitality, welcoming all guests."

HotelPlanner.com is a private company that offers group hotel bookings to several large associations. NRA members have access to the company's discounted group rates.

"We're just a classic hospitality company," Hentschel told CNBC on "Power Lunch" Monday. Hentschel said his company, which he estimates will arrange about 900,000 group bookings this year, stands by the NRA because the NRA is like any other customer in the association network— and his company has an obligation to honor its customers.
As much as the left wants to divide America, people and corporations are standing up for freedom and constitutional rights. Even with differing beliefs, in a free-market economy, the power of the people's purse will steer the economic successes and failures for the future of corporations. Companies may take sides on the issue of gun control, but the people are the ones who fund these companies and will dictate the market's direction. Until there is firm federal regulation to force the economy into a certain direction, it will be a game of corporate policy change and consumer reaction.

Sources:

• Dick’s Sporting Goods, Major Gun Retailer, Stops Selling Assault-Style Weapons

• Not interested in ‘your boycott war,’ HotelPlanner CEO says to companies cutting ties with NRA

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://citizensoutpost.com/2018/02/28/dicks-sporting-goods-stops-selling-assault-style-weapons/

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