America’s oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer Mossberg has severed ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods and their subsidiary Field & Stream after the retailers hired gun control lobbyists in April.
After the school shooting in Parkland, FL, on February 14, Dick’s chose “to destroy their existing inventory of AR-15s and refuse firearm sales to those under age 21.”
Mossberg issued a press release yesterday:
Effective immediately, O.F. Mossberg & Sons will not accept any future orders from Dick’s Sporting Goods or Field & Stream, and in in the process of evaluating current contractural 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.”
Guns.com reported that Dick’s has “nearly a dozen Mossberg/Maverick-branded products for sale in their catalog including Model 88, 500 and 535 shotguns and Plinkster .22LR rifles.” The Field & Stream outlets offer a larger selection of Mossberg items, “including MVP and Patriot series bolt-action rifles priced as high as $1,699.”
Others have left Dick’s behind. Ohio-based MKS chose not to sell its products to Dick’s and affiliates for the exact same reasons as Mossberg. From Guns.com:
“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.”Founded in 1992, Hi-Point specializes in economical handguns and pistol caliber carbines while Inland, launched in 2014, produces a series of classic military firearms including variants of the M1911 pistol and M1 Carbine. According to federal regulators, MKS’s Ohio production partners — Haskell Manufacturing, Iberia Firearms, and Strassells Machine — produced 147,400 handguns and 58,600 rifles in 2016, making it one of the largest gun makers in the country by volume.“We are proud of our products, we are proud of our customers, and we are especially proud of the freedoms secured by our great U.S. Constitution. We are committed to all three,” said Brown.
Illinois-based firearms manufacturer Springfield Armory made the same decision:
“It is clear where Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, stand on the Second Amendment, and we want to be clear about our message in response,” the company said. “Their position runs counter to what we stand for as a company. At Springfield Armory, we believe in the right and principles fought for and secured by American patriots and our founding forefathers, without question. We will not accept Dick’s Sporting Goods’ continued attempts to deny Second Amendment freedoms to our fellow Americans.”Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Geneseo, Illinois, Springfield started business marketing commercial variants of the M14 rifle series, dubbed the M1A, still a prime cornerstone of their catalog. Since then, they have expanded to the handgun market with a line of M1911-series guns and their XD series as well as added various AR-15 models to their offerings. According to federal regulators, in 2016, Springfield manufactured 72,013 handguns and 58,504 rifles in addition to guns imported from overseas.
Dick’s suffered another loss when the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s largest trade association, chose not to represent the company:
“NSSF responded that business decisions should be individually made, but was nonetheless disappointed and the decision does not reflect the reality of the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners,” the organization said Friday.
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