American Military News can confirm, from speaking with someone at Academy Sports + Outdoors that as a reaction to the Orlando terrorist attack they are in fact pulling all rifles from their shelves.
Academy Sports + Outdoors is a southern U.S. sporting goods store chain. For 74 years it was a privately held company owned by the Gochman family, until its May 2011 acquisition by the long-time Wall Street investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Academy operates 200 stores throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Academy Sports and Outdoors has its corporate offices and product distribution center in unincorporated western Harris County, Texas, United States, near Katy.
We called Academy Sports + Outdoors at their general phone number, 888-922-2336 and the woman who answered said that she had notes on what to say and confirmed that:
“Due to the events in Orlando they have been taking precautions and they are taking firearms down.”
Academy Sports + Outdoors also did the same thing after the Sandy Hook shooting.
American Military News reached out to Elise Hasbrook, Director of Communications for the chain but got voicemail at the time of publishing, most likely because it was after hours.
An employee of Academy, who requested to remain anonymous told American Military News the following:
“We got the call from corporate just before close to take the rifles off of display, only after all customers have left for the night. MSR’s are still for sale, but will not be displayed “for about a week or two.”
The Firearms Blog also spoke with sources at Academy:
TFB also received information from a Academy employee that requested to remain anonymous that there are even more changes. Our informant stated that Academy Sports corporate hosted a conference call requesting all modern sporting rifle lighters and other gifts are being pulled from the shelves along with all the airsoft and bb guns resembling an “assault rifle”.
The most shocking development is that the conference call outlined a new policy requiring any sale of more than 10 boxes in a caliber that Academy deems an “assault rifle caliber” will require the buyer to furnish personal information that Academy is planning on keeping in a database, other employees have stated that they were just directed to “report the transaction” with no clear outline on how to do so.
There are some groups now attempting to form a boycott of the chain store.
