Effective immediately, Dick's Sporting Goods - one of the nation's largest sports retailers has announced that not only will they no longer carry or sell assault rifles, they will also raise the age to buy any firearm.

Anyone who wishes to buy a gun of any kind at Dick's must now be 21 years old.

Extended magazines are also in Dick's crosshairs, because they won't be selling those anymore either.

According to the New York Times, Dick's CEO Edward Stack(son of Dick's founder) is making the move as a response to the school shooting in Florida that claimed 17 lives two weeks ago.

In an interview, Stack said he's hoping this will help expand the national conversation about gun control.

“When we saw what happened in Parkland, we were so disturbed and upset,” Stack said in an interview Tuesday evening. “We love these kids and their rallying cry, ‘enough is enough.’ It got to us. We’re going to take a stand and step up and tell people our view and, hopefully, bring people along into the conversation.”

Dick's made a similar move in 2012 after the shooting at Sandy Hook School, but reversed course a few months later.

Stack said this time will be permanent, partly because of how close Dick's came to being a part of the Florida Shooting story.

Shortly after the Florida shooter was identified in February, officials at Dick's searched through their records and found that they had legally sold a gun to Nikolas Cruz(the suspect in the Parkland, Florida shooting) in November, even though it was not the gun or type of gun used in the school shooting.

Dick's is not the first corporation to make a move like this. Last week several companies cut ties with the NRA including Hertz, MetLife and Delta Airlines.

Meanwhile, Stack says he is aware this move is a polarizing one, but he's prepared for any backlash.

“The whole hunting business is an important part of our business, and we know there is going to be backlash on this,” Stack said. “But we’re willing to accept that. If the kids in Parkland are being brave enough to stand up and do this, we can be brave enough to stand up with them.”

Stack says Dick's still strongly supports the second amendment and will still sell sport and hunting firearms.

Here's the full statement from Dick's Sporting Goods Facebook page:

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