20 NEWSWEEK.COM DECEMBER 13, 2019
MODERN BUSINESSn the immediate aftermath of the marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Park-
land, Florida, my wife Donna and I found ourselves
feeling, at some level, a certain degree of guilt—one
we shared with America’s other political and cor-
porate leaders. All of us, an entire generation, had
shirked our responsibilities. We were failing the na-
tion’s children. We had to do something.
That weekend, I wrote a first draft of a position paper
for Dick’s Sporting Goods. It opened by saying how much respect we
had for the young people behind the “Never Again” drive, and that
our thoughts and prayers were with “so many of you that have lost
loved ones, friends and mentors.” But thoughts and prayers weren’t
enough, I wrote. “We need to take action to address this problem.”
I then offered a list of recommendations. Some were vague—the
first item on the list was “revision of gun laws,” but others were
aimed at specific targets: A “ban on assault-style weapons.” A change
in laws nationwide “to include 21 as the required age for buying
guns.” A ban on the bump stock, which modifies semi-automatic
guns to allow them to fire their rounds in rapid succession. A na-
tionwide waiting period for gun sales, during which a buyer’s social
media posts, as well as his or her criminal record, would be checked.
“I encourage our lawmakers to come together to find a solution to
this problem,” I wrote. “The country needs for you to put partisan
politics aside and thoroughly discuss and pass a practical solution.
We do not want to hear partisan discourse. This is too important.”
I was in emotional turmoil when I wrote one of the final
points I made in the document: “Until we are confident there
are checks and balances that en-
sure we are not going to sell a gun
to someone who plans to walk out
of our store and kill, we are sus-
pending the sale of guns.”
Monday morning, back in Pitts-
burgh, we convened a meeting of
the leadership team. I said, “We
have to take a stand. And we can
actually do something about it—Chairman and CEO of DICK’S Sporting Goods Stores Ed Stack grew a small family business from two storefronts into
the largest sporting goods retailer in the country with over $9 billion in sales and close to 800 locations—and he did
so with a sense of responsibility to the communities he serves. In the wake of rising gun violence and school shootings
in the United States, Stack made a series of controversial decisions curtailing firearms sales at his stores, which cul-
minated in the wake of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school shooting, when he completely stopped selling assault-style
rifles and raised the age to 21 for any firearms purchases. Since then, he has further limited firearms sales and spoken
out on behalf of more restrictive gun laws—despite vocal criticism and boycotts from many of his formerly loyal cus-
tomers—a decision he describes in the following excerpt from his recently published book, It’s How We Play the Game.THEN AND NOW
Opposite page from top:
Founder Dick Stack in 1 956
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a customer gun shopping at
Dick's Sporting Goods in
2012, before CEO Ed Stack
(this page) made the decision
to stop selling assault-style
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