Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO: It’s time for Congress to ‘do something about guns’

Edkward V. Stack, CEO of Dick's Sporting Goods, issued a rallying call for gun control after his stores announced that they would no longer sell "assault-style weapons."

What did he say?

Stack wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Wednesday that it's high time for Congress to "do something about guns" in the wake of February's deadly Parkland, Florida, mass killing.

Stack, who identifies as a gun-owning supporter of the Second Amendment, said the government isn't as focused on keeping citizens — specifically children — as safe as they should.

"[I] understand why, for many, the right to bear arms is as American as baseball and apple pie," he wrote. "But I also agree with what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his majority opinion in 2008’s landmark Heller case: 'Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.'"

"It is 'not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,'" Stack wrote, noting that it's "clear we have a problem with the gun laws in this country."

Stack went on to say that mass killings aren't ceasing and that the only thing that gets accomplished after each devastating killing spree is more discussion and no action.

He lauded the efforts of the Parkland students who have been instrumental in furthering conversations beyond just a few days of grief talk following mass killing incidents involving guns.

"These brave young men and women are not going away," Stack added.

He noted that his company has also tried to continue the conversation sparked by the Florida mass killing by banning the sale of "assault-style weapons" and changing age restrictions to purchase any firearms in their stores.

"Some members of Congress are committed to change, but not enough are willing to set aside partisanship to find a solution," Stack wrote. "I continue to call on lawmakers in both parties to talk with each other with the expressed intent to act."

He noted that he understands gun control is a "complex issue," and that constituencies have "broad agendas," but he expressed hope that Congress "will take notice of not only what students are saying, but also what the private sector is telling it."

Stack stated that he knew changing the store's gun policies would impact the company's bottom line — but he went ahead and made the changes regardless.

"This issue transcends our company’s bottom line," he wrote. "We suspected that speaking out would have a negative impact on our business. But this was about our values and standing up for what we think is right."