There've been some changes in the web page of Dick's Sporting Goods. A major American gun dealer, Dick's has over 600 locations in 47 states.
What's missing from the new web page are assault rifles. There's nary an AR-15 to be found. After the Parkland high school massacre, Dicks's has decided that America doesn't need any more "black guns." So, it has stopped selling these weapons entirely. You can still purchase hunting rifles and most of the inventory is single-shot, bolt-action rifles designed and built for target shooting and hunting, just not hunting humans.
Dick's has also raised the minimum age of firearm purchasers from 18 to 21.
I thought I'd check out the Canadian market for the AR-15. Cabella's Canada offers a Smith & Wesson AR-15 for just $699 plus taxes and shipping. Another American-based sporting goods superstore entering the Canadian market, Bass Pro Shops, also seems to have AR-15 knock offs.
In Canada you have to have a "restricted" gun licence to buy these weapons and Canadian law limits them to a five-round capacity magazine. However most Canadians live awfully close to the US border and you can nip over the line to buy 30-round magazines cheap, cheap, cheap. It's an offence if you're caught with high-capacity magazines in Canada but, well, just saying.
UPDATE:
Who knew? Just learned from Money.com that Dick's decision to stop selling AR-15s leaves just one major US retailer carrying the weapon for sale. That's Bass Pro Shops and the company's recently acquired subsidiary, Cabela's. There are, however, still plenty of places such as the ever-popular gun shows where just about anyone can snag themselves a "black rifle."
This is heartening news, Mound, almost enough to believe that the young people fearlessly speaking outright now are creating a momentum that may be hard to stop.
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ReplyDeleteI wish I felt that way, Lorne. There are so many of these black rifles under beds or in closets in the States and now you can drive down to your outdoor sports superstore (Cabela's is in Barrie. They're also in Nanaimo) and buy one. The genie is out of the bottle. There are so many AR-15s in private hands and trading from one owner to the next that it's hard to imagine bringing them under control.
Remember Michael Moore getting a free shotgun for opening a bank account and the story from a couple of weeks ago about grade 3 students selling raffle tickets for an AR-15 to raise money for their baseball team. At my daughter's wedding I met a nice young man from Chicago, a friend of my son-in-law's. I found out he had two AR-15s. He bought one and received the other one in exchange for fixing another guy's car. The gun was a commodity of exchange and the Chicago cadre looked at me curiously when I expressed concerned surprise at that.
Wall Mart has put in place restrictions on gun sales.
ReplyDeleteThey are the biggest gun sellers in the USA.
Now they just need to rid themselves of those customers who dress oddly and 'pack' so much weight!!
TB