Dick's Sporting Goods is in the process of destroying all assault rifles in its inventory, a move that comes two months after a mass shooting at a high school in Florida that left 17 dead and 14 injured, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday.
"We are in the process of destroying all firearms and accessories that are no longer for sale as a result of our Feb. 28 policy change," a spokeswoman told the paper. "We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations."
Dick's stopped selling modern sporting rifles from its namesake stores after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, but started selling the weapons again in 2013 when it opened a chain of outdoor sports-themed stores called Field & Stream.
But the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, reignited the national gun debate and led to Dick's decision to pull assault rifles from its 35 specialty Field & Stream locations in March. The company also said it would no longer sell high-capacity magazines or firearms to anyone under 21 years old at any of Dick's 700 stores.
"We looked at what happened and we were truly deeply moved and disturbed by those events," Dick's chairman and CEO Ed Stack told "Good Morning America." "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.”
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