Dick's Sporting Goods Removes Semi-Automatic Rifles from Shelves
By: Chris Veech
Updated: December 18, 2012
The guns in question are semi-automatic rifles like the one that was reportedly used in last Friday's shooting in Connecticut. Conflicting reports say that the shooting suspect may have unsuccessfully tried to buy a gun at Dick's in Danbury, Connecticut. People we spoke with seem to be on both sides of the issue.
"All you're doing is hurting the innocent person," said Steve Grathler of El Dorado, Illinois. "Why should the innocent person suffer? Bad people can certainly get guns regardless of where it's at: off the street, black markets, friends. They're going to get them regardless of whether they pull them off or not. You aren't gonna keep them from doing it. You're hurting the innocent person."
"It's hard not to go back to the mental disability thing," said John Shelman of Henderson, "because I feel like that's the core of the problem. And we can talk about gun control and kind of beat around the bush. But until we deal with the core problem, it's not really going to be fixed. "
"The gun control, I don't think you could ever get that under control," said Donna Winternheimer of Marion, "but I don't even think there should be semi-automatic rifles. That's just crazy."
"It's a knee-jerk reaction," said Bill Broshears of Evansville. "Everybody knows guns don't kill. It's the people that do it. And this young man, he had some mental problems. He would have found some way to kill a bunch of people one way or the other. So I mean, it's a 'feel good deal.'"
Dick's Sporting Goods has also removed all guns from their store nearest to Newtown.
