The Selective Hypocrisy of Dick’s Sporting Goods

We are all by now familiar with the tragedy that occurred on December 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. CDN readers & contributors have provided several excellent articles and analyses of what happened.

Kevin Fobbs provided an analysis what happened and why Connecticut laws failed to keep a gun out of the hands of Adam Lanza. Fobbs offers another article about what could have prevented Lanza’s attack. Fobbs says, “What if there had been a ‘Three Strike Rule’ in place for Adam Lanza, which allowed automatic involuntary commitment by mental health authorities?” He then offers what is (to me) obvious to us Second Amendment supporters and should be obvious to gun-control advocates: “This disturbed gunman may have used guns as weapons to kill, but it was his mental illness that was the true deadly assault weapon!” Well said, Kevin, well said.

An article by Kyle Becker places (intentional) “Firearm Homicide” in perspective with other perfectly legal activities. The chart Kyle offers has this at the bottom: “WHY is there No outcry to RESTRICT baseball bat ownership?” That statement brings me to the point of my article.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has over 500 locations in 44 states. Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to stop the sale of some semi-automatic rifles from its stores nationwide and remove all guns previously sold in the stores nearest Newtown, CT. The move came in response to authorities’ attempt to determine whether gunman Adam Lanza attempted to purchase a gun from Dick’s in Danbury, CT, just 12 miles from Newtown, CT.

That’s well and good. Dick’s is free (for now) to pull any merchandise it chooses. But, at the same time I did not hear about Dick’s pulling baseball bats or golf clubs or archery sets. Or did I simply miss that announcement? Selective hypocrisy from Dick’s? If Dick’s is going to stop sales of semi-automatic rifles, can we expect Dick’s to be consistent and pull all sporting goods merchandise that can be used as a weapon as well?

Speaking specifically about baseball bats, I am reminded of the scene in The Untouchables movie where Al Capone (played by Robert De Niro) beat one of his subordinates to death with a (wait for it…) baseball bat. While I’m sure that the beating in the scene was not real (I hope not), it graphically illustrates what can be accomplished when a baseball bat is used as a weapon. I am certain that (at least some of the) Dick’s executives saw that movie and scene. The person being beaten was just as dead as if he had been shot. So, Dick’s, are baseball bats going to be pulled next?

And that sentiment goes for medical doctors as well. Most of us are born with two hands and two feet. When we reach puberty, or 14 or so years old, we can use our hands as weapons to strangle people, and our feet as weapons to kick people to death. ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. The human brain is the ultimate weapon. Where does the reductio ad absurdum of gun control (or any weapon control) ever stop? Is Dick’s going to try to pull brains off the shelves as well?

But that’s just my opinion.