Dick’s Sporting Goods’ hunting business in trouble after pulling ‘assault-style’ weapons from stores

Dick's Sporting Goods' hunting business is hurting after the company made the decision to remove all "assault-style" rifles from its inventory following the mass killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida .

The company also announced that it would be raising the minimum age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21 years old.

What are the details?

While the "assault rifle ban" didn't hurt the company's bottom line —the store's shares are up 21 percent since the company announced storewide gun restrictions on Feb. 28 — it appears that the failure to sell AR-15-style rifles in Dick's stores is impacting the retailer's hunting business.

On Wednesday, Business Insider reported that Dick's showed a stock up 28 percent for first-quarter 2018 earnings, but noted that "gun sales weren't a part of that success."

"Our firearms policy changes impacted our hunt business which saw an accelerated decline," Lee Belitsky, the company's chief financial officer, told analysts on the company's conference call, according to the outlet. "We expect these businesses to remain under significant pressure throughout the remainder of the year."

"We don't have the best relationship with the firearms manufacturers right now," Belitsky added, according to Business Insider.

One such manufacturer — Mossberg & Sons — who previously sold firearms to the sporting goods chain "did indicate that they weren't going to sell us on a direct basis," according to Belitsky.

Mossberg wasn't the only one: several other firearms manufacturers announced that they would no longer do business with Dick's.

Springfield Armory, Hi-Point Firearms, and Inland Manufacturing are three firearm companies that have opted to sever ties with the company.

What else?

In contrast to the negative sales news, Edward Stack, the company's chief executive officer, said that while the controversial policy has damaged ties with gun manufacturers, new customers have come to the sporting goods store as a result of the policy.

"There’s been a number of people who have started shopping us," Stack said. “They said they’re going to shop us more because of the policy. There’s definitely been some benefit of the people who joined us, so to speak, because of the policy.”