Peduto to honor Dick's Sporting Goods CEO for gun safety efforts

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto on Tuesday evening will honor the CEO of Coraopolis-based Dick’s Sporting Goods with a leadership award for promoting firearms safety.

Peduto and Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen, will present Edward Stack with a Maverick in Leadership Award from the Yale Mayors College and CEO Summit. Peduto is attending the yearly gathering of mayors and business leaders in New York City this week.

Dick’s in 2018 removed all assault-style firearms, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks from its stores and prohibited gun sales to anyone under 21 after a massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“It’s my honor to present Ed Stack with this award and to celebrate the integrity and courage he has shown in taking on what we in Pittsburgh know to be one of the most important fights of our time – protecting our neighborhoods, schools, places of worship and all public places from the gun violence epidemic,” Peduto said in a statement.

Stack, whose father started the business in 1948, announced the change and acknowledged it would draw criticism.

Peduto has long supported gun regulations in the city and stepped up that support following the Oct. 27 mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill.

Mayor @billpeduto is in New York tonight, where he will honor @DICKS CEO Ed Stack for his work on behalf of common-sense gun safety measures https://t.co/fJwjSrseIP

— City of Pittsburgh (@CityPGH) June 4, 2019

In April, City Council passed and Peduto signed ordinances banning the use of semi-automatic rifles and certain ammunition and accessories in Pittsburgh. The legislation included a so-called red flag bill that authorizes courts to temporarily remove the firearms of a person deemed a public danger.

Enforcement of the bills is on hold until the city resolves several lawsuits filed by Second Amendment advocates.