Big 5 stopped selling guns?

[Oldmandan]

I don't shop there anyway, everything in there is available on Amazon for 20%-30% less.

You would "think", they'd keep the one thing in the store that Amazon can't sell, but what do I know...

[oakland1067]

hard for these stores to find reliable employees that can pass background checks and stay on top of paperwork - reason why Walmart stopped selling ammo.

[Dan_Eastvale]

They still sell some here in Utah but not like before
Haven't even thought about them when considering guns or ammo in a long time.

I also never see anyone buying guns or ammo there.

Just go for my kids' softball, soccer, and pickleball when a sale is on

[dboymboy]

Haven't been to one in ages

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Tapatalk

[12pewpew]

Originally Posted by oakland1067

hard for these stores to find reliable employees that can pass background checks and stay on top of paperwork - reason why Walmart stopped selling ammo.

This. About 5 years ago I tried buying a Chiappa Little Badger on a whim but couldn't because nobody at the store knew how to do the paperwork. I had to come back the next day when the manager was there.

[bohoki]

its not hard for me to boycott since all i ever bought there was guns ammo and shoes and i got plenty of shoes

[seabee1]

Haven't considered big 5 for a firearm purchase since they had surplus M1 Carbines. could care less now, and honestly, can you really blame them? Ca. and the DOJ are a **itshow

[Preston-CLB]

The reason for this is the new law that requires very expensive surveillance, including audio for all FFL's that sell firearms, effective 01/01/2024.

Big-5 will continue to sell ammo. I clarified this with the manager of our local store.

There's already a couple of threads on this issue. Here's one.

Just another knife slice of our rights.
-P

[The Gleam]

Originally Posted by johncexton

No guns at California BIG 5 stores any more

I called the main office of BIG 5
They will not be selling firearms in California any more.
They have pulled all their guns out of the California stores.
This is a corporate decision they made not to sell guns anymore.

I suggest your Boycott and DO NOT SHOP at BIG 5, or any other store
that does not support the US Constitution and 2nd Amendment.
9/1/2023

A boycott in this case makes no sense.

They simply don't want the hassle of special handling, special processes, and special training, special licensing, special storage, extra cost and relentless bureacracy to sell firearms any longer, on top of the new security recording nonsense. They are just ridding themselves of a hassle that isn't profitable anyway.

How is that not supporting the 2nd Amendment and Constitution?

They aren't making a statement by it, they aren't saying they are ceasing to sell firearms because Everytown or March-for-Our-Lies won them over.

They aren't being 'Dick's' about it.

Firearm sales were never their primary revenue generator, it's always been about the discounted shoes, sportswear, cheap gym equipment, backyard sports, and little-league/scholastic sports equipment sales.

They aren't actively advocating gun bans nor promoting anti-2nd Amendment legislation as other businesses have.

So what is the viable reason to boycott them?

Boycotting Dick's made sense because they made such a grand statement standing on political overtures when they publicly declared they would no longer sell modern semiautomatic rifles because of the 'connotation' they felt doing so carried.

(And unfortunately, any boycott of Dick's that did exist never materialized in any meaningful way.)

But should we boycott Ross stores and Autozone because they don't sell firearms?

ACE/True Value stores sold firearms and ammo up until roughly the 1980s in CA. They simply stopped selling firearms for similar reasons - but should we boycott them?

Martin B. Retting is closing up shop merely because they too have decided to get out of selling firearms, after 65 years at the same location in Culver City. How should we go about boycotting them for their Anti-2nd Amendment ways?

For what it's worth, the last time I stepped into a Big 5 was about 10 years ago for a some UnderArmor running shoes that were on sale. Prior to that, maybe 15 years earlier, it was to pick up a CAI Mosin 91/59 Bulgarian Guard carbine.

Big-5 does not even come to mind when I'm thinking of buying yet another gun or any amount of ammo.

Everything they've carried in ongoing inventory these past ten years or more has not appealed to me at all, either because it was cheap Turkish/Chinese/Serbian junk, pedestrian beginner's guns or the very basic need Mossberg 500 or Maverick for home defense, way overpriced even when on sale (whether guns or ammo), or the salespeople would not be able to pull their head out of their rectums to successfully complete the sale in the first place.

No, I won't be 'boycotting' Big-5 over an obvious pragmatic business decision.

However, if they come out and make some big grandiose theatrical anti-2nd Amendment exhibition as the reason for doing so, I'll certainly never set a foot in their stores ever again.

Now I can't think of any reason I would ever go to a Big-5 in the first place, but if I do think of one, seeing things as they are, guns or a boycott is the last thing on my mind.

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[SkyHawk]

It's hard to blame them.

[The Gleam]

Originally Posted by Oldmandan

I don't shop there anyway, everything in there is available on Amazon for 20%-30% less.

You would "think", they'd keep the one thing in the store that Amazon can't sell, but what do I know...

Which was the mistake Sears made; they sought to be like other fashion-based/trendy department stores, by giving up the very things that made them unique a turning away from middle-America demographic that got them there - farm, feed, and garden supplies, aisles and aisles of diverse quality US made tools, riding mowers and ranch support, specialty equipment, guns/ammo, hardware, quality housewares.

Once they did that, and tried to be another JC Penney or Target, they were on the road to ruin.

Now bankrupt and nonexistant. Destroyed, broken up, and sold off in pieces by Eddie Lampert with some apparent pump-and-dump schemes along the way.

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[PogoJack]

End of an era in my book. When my family first moved to CA, Big 5 was the first gun store I went to with my dad.

Back in the mid-80s, they were selling Iver Johnson M1 Carbines and surplus SMLE rifles and I believe they had pistols as well.

About 13 years ago they were selling Yugo Mausers for like $250 and I passed on those. Thanks for the memories, Big 5.

[evlblkrfl]

The Big 5 near me still has a fully stocked rifle rack

[Warbonnet]

Big 5 is where people go to buy cheap Chinese sneakers and baggy huge basketball shorts.

They haven't seriously catered to sportsmen in years.

[SISKIN]

Well I went to Big 5 this morning to get an 800rd value pack of 22. Sale price was $64 but I got charged $6.49 . Proof is in the picture.

[Tarmy]

Big 5 is just Dick?s with crappier stuff.

[Sideline Shooter]

Late to the party on this one. Went to Big 5 to get my son a backpack. I noticed no long guns, only air rifles. I asked the clerk at the register about the guns. He said Big 5 in CA stopped selling guns last month because it would cost them $5 million per store to install video and "AUDIO" per CA law.

Never heard of that one...

Big 5 wasn't the best but we all lose when one more location closes access to guns and ammo.

[echo1]

Originally Posted by PogoJack

End of an era in my book. When my family first moved to CA, Big 5 was the first gun store I went to with my dad.

Back in the mid-80s, they were selling Iver Johnson M1 Carbines and surplus SMLE rifles and I believe they had pistols as well.

About 13 years ago they were selling Yugo Mausers for like $250 and I passed on those. Thanks for the memories, Big 5.

Big 5 was never my go to gun shop but i did get a Mossy 500, a Yugo 59/66, a 10/22 and a few Mosin 91/30s all at discounted prices. Fast forward a few decades, 2 Mosin's & 2 SKS rifles were tuned into an SVT40, 3 SKSs turned into a Luxembourg FN49. Worked out for me. Bricks of .22 was the only ammo I ever got from them. PAX .

[stormvet]

I haven’t step foot in a Big 5 in a decade, last time was 2011 I bought a Hatsan tacticool 12 gauge shotty still have it. Only bought two other guns there, a Marlin 795 22 in 2009 gave it to my daughter and a Mossberg 500 in 2001 that I still have.

[KrizB]

Popped in the other day for some .22 ammo
Sad to see a bunch of airsoft and pellet rifles in the place of firearms.

[KrisDSA]

Big 5 in Lancaster still sales them. They were actually one of the few places during the summer of love and Covid. They were still getting Guns

[kenl]

The local Big5 is still selling guns and ammo, and the manager told me that they will continue to do so.

[RealCali]

My son works at one of their stores. As per a previous post, the issue is CA compliance, which becomes more complex as time passes. This was not a "moral" issue as Dick's attempted to portray. I do not blame them. Hope they can still keep selling ammo,

[Preston-CLB]

Originally Posted by RealCali

My son works at one of their stores. As per a previous post, the issue is CA compliance, which becomes more complex as time passes. This was not a "moral" issue as Dick's attempted to portray. I do not blame them. Hope they can still keep selling ammo,

See my post above.

Big-5 will continue to sell ammo.
-P

ETA: Welcome to CalGuns!

[TrappedinCalifornia]

Originally Posted by RealCali

My son works at one of their stores. As per a previous post, the issue is CA compliance, which becomes more complex as time passes. This was not a "moral" issue as Dick's attempted to portray. I do not blame them. Hope they can still keep selling ammo,

Some companies are using it as an attempt to attract customers. Some are using it as an 'excuse' to micromanage their inventory. Many are simply 'giving up' as California (deliberately) makes it more difficult and potentially 'hazardous' to sell guns and their related items.

Insofar as continuing to sell ammo, it is likely. At least for awhile. But, as with Walmart, I'm not sure I'd hope for... 'indefinitely.' A couple reasons for that include AB 28, which increases the cost of the ammo sold and Big 5 needs to remain competitive at the 'low' end; not to mention that I doubt TPTB in Sacramento are going to let up on the complexities involved in selling ammo, thereby increasing the costs and potential penalties.

Welcome to Calguns.

[elx144]

My local Walmart in Reno still sold guns for the longest time but stopped at some point while I lived there. I was at a Walmart a few weeks ago in Billings Montana that still had some for sale. Not having a 1968 license anymore is probably the same reason. Maybe no one bought enough guns there to justify the communist style license system. We should start celebrating the day the CIA killed RFK. Cook a steak outside in acknowledgement of the day our grandparents allowed another massive rights violation in the name of security, lead by some idiot with a .22 lr revolver who gatted down JFK's brother.