Politics
- Two 20-year-old Dick's Sporting Goods employees posted resignation letters on social media to protest the retailer's new gun policies.
- On Wednesday, the retailer announced it would stop selling assault-style rifles and increase the minimum age for purchasing firearms to 21.
- Guns-rights activists protested the change, with one employee calling the new policy "systematic discrimination".
Two 20-year-old Dick's Sporting Goods employees claim they're quitting their jobs over the retailer's new gun policies.
On Wednesday, the retailer announced it would no longer sell guns to shoppers under the age of 21, in addition to ending the sale of assault-style rifles.
On Thursday, Griffin Mccullar posted a photo of a printed resignation letter on his Facebook page.
"I cannot be the face of these new gun policies in affect [sic]," the letter reads. "I find them morally and constitutionally wrong. I refuse to be a part of a corporation with these liberal policies."
Mccullar - who identifies himself as a 20-year-old avid hunter - apologizes for the inconvenience, stating that otherwise he had great experiences with Dick's coworkers and management.
The post quickly gained steam online. As of Friday, it has been shared more than 8,600 times.
Mccullar isn't the only Dick's employee who has apparently quit his job in the aftermath of the retailer's decision to stop selling assault-style rifles and guns to customers under the age of 21.
Alex Degarmo posted his own letter of resignation on Facebook on Friday, in which he says he is quitting his position as a sales associate at a Lincoln, Nebraska, location.
"I firmly believe that it is morally and constitutionally wrong to infringe upon the rights of a law abiding citizen in any way, and I will not work for a company that pushes for the restriction of the Second Amendment," Degarmo wrote. "Also I will not take part in the systematic discrimination Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack has arbitrarily decided to implement."
"I am also ending my employment with Dick's Sporting Goods due to the fact that I am being discriminated against, I am twenty years old and therefore barred from pushing a firearm from a Dick's Sporting Goods store or their subsidiaries," the letter continued.
On Wednesday - two weeks after the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Dick's Sporting Goods announced that shoppers under the age of 21 would be barred from purchasing firearms from stores. In November, Dick's sold a gun to Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people in the Parkland shooting, though it was not the weapon used in the shooting.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their loved ones," Dick's said in a letter to customers.
"But thoughts and prayers are not enough," it continued. "We have to help solve the problem that's in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America - our kids."
The decision was met with a wave of backlash from some customers, something the company expected.
"The whole hunting business is an important part of our business, and we know there is going to be backlash on this," Stack told The New York Times. "But we're willing to accept that."
In the days after Dick's announcement, other retailers followed in its footsteps.
Walmart made a similar announcement later Wednesday, saying it would restrict customers under 21 from buying guns. On Thursday, Kroger said it would also raise its minimum age for gun sales to 21 from 18.
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