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Academy Sports pulling guns off store shelves in response to Orlando shooting

Posted at 6:10 PM, Jun 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-17 10:01:57-04

A major gun retailer is now pulling guns off of its shelves following the mass shooting in Orlando at a prominent LGBT nightclub that left 50 dead.

Texas-based Academy Sports and Outdoors, with over 200 stores, has taken certain rifles off its shelves across the country.

One of the locations said the move was in response to the nightclub shooting in Orlando last weekend. Reporters with Tulsa's KJRH-TV went into an Academy Sports store in Oklahoma to check the shelves, but were asked to leave.

Some said the move is a response to an intensifying cry for action in regards to gun control.

"Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why this makes sense," President Barack Obama said.

Obama visited with victims' families and survivors in Orlando, while Democrats in Washington D.C. took the mantle and ran with it.

"What you're seeing is that the weapon of choice for terrorists in the United States is no longer an IED, it's an assault weapon and we have to that seriously," Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said.

"One of the fastest ways to sell any firearms product is talk seriously about limiting the availability and the opportunity to own that particular type of firearm," said Eric Fuson, general manager of Tulsa's 2A Shooting Center.

Fuson said his business sees sales go up when there's a threat of guns being restricted in any way.

Congress is considering several bills mostly aimed at strengthening background checks.

"It just seems that every time a tragedy like that involves a firearm, the firearm becomes the root of focus instead of the actual root of the problem which is the individual committing the crime," Fuson said.

Fuson said the AR is America's best-selling rifle because of its light weight and ease of use. He said it is getting the blame for a tragedy that left a nation stunned.

"No one blamed the airplane on 9/11; no one blamed the fertilizer at the Oklahoma City bombing, even here locally where the two kids murdered their family, no one blamed the knives," he said. "But the first time somebody gets shot or multiple people get shot, it's instantly the firearm's problem."