Dick’s Sporting Goods to remove guns from another 440 stores in 2020

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it would end the sale of all firearms in another 440 stores, expanding upon a decision made by the company last year.

CNBC reported that the company made the announcement following its posting of earnings in the fourth quarter of 2019. Shares of the company’s stock reportedly jumped 12 percent on the news in premarket trading.

The decision means that that the majority of Dick’s locations will no longer sell firearms. The company has 729 stores nationwide and previously removed guns from 125 locations in an initial decision made in response to the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla.

The chain had previously moved to end the sale of all assault-style weapons and banned the sale of firearms to buyers under the age of 21.

“Based on what’s happened, and looking at those kids and those parents, it moved us all unimaginably and to think about the loss and the grief that those kids and those parents had, we said, we need to do something,” CEO Ed Stack said last year.

In a press release Tuesday announcing the company’s fourth quarter results, Stack added that the company will proceed with “enthusiasm with a degree of caution” due to the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak, which has slowed sales worldwide.