An attorney for families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has asked one of the nation’s largest sporting goods retailers to stop selling assault rifles. Joshua Koskoff sent a letter on Thursday to Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris.
In the letter, Koskoff appeals to Morris with references to the retailer’s history – selling fishing tackle out of the back of his father’s liquor store in Missouri in the 1970s. He quotes Morris’s own words, writing, ‘It is of vital importance what we leave to the future.’ And he reminds Morris that customers can buy the types of weapons used in the shootings at Newtown, Las Vegas, Parkland and other mass shootings.
One of Bass Pro Shops’ flagship stores is in Bridgeport, Connecticut, about 20 miles from Newtown. None of the weapons used in the shooting were bought at Bass Pro Shops.
Koskoff is representing some of the families in a lawsuit against Remington, who made the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the Newtown shooting. That case is currently before the Connecticut Supreme Court.
Some retailers, including Wal-Mart and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have announced they’ll limit the sale of assault rifles in the aftermath of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month.
