Responding to concerns from parents about gun safety, some Central Oregon businesses are pulling products with ties to gun manufacturers or deciding they won’t sell guns or ammunition to anyone younger than 21.

On Thursday, Bi-Mart and Kroger Co., the company that owns Fred Meyer, joined Walmart Inc. and Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. in announcing they’d tighten their gun sales rules. Sunnyside Sports, on Newport Avenue in Bend, took matters one step further by pulling products made by Giro, Bell Sports, Blackburn and Camelbak because the parent company is Vista Outdoor, a corporation that owns many companies including Savage Arms, which produces semi-automatic rifles.

“At Sunnyside Sports we see no ethical option other than to cease to do business with Vista Outdoor. This is not an easy decision for us, and it will come at great cost. But it is only when large companies feel our pain in their pocketbooks that real change will take place,” Susan Conner, an owner of Sunnyside Sports, wrote on the company’s Facebook page.

Conner declined to discuss the store’s position further. In the Facebook post, she also wrote that the store would donate $5,000 of projected profits from existing merchandise to Every Town for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.

The actions of the Central Oregon businesses come in response to the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 that killed 17 people and wounded another 14 in Parkland, Florida. The suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which is similar to the weapon used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six adults in 2012.

Northwest chain Bi-Mart has never sold AK or AR platform rifles or bump stocks, said Don Leber, company spokesman, in a statement Thursday. The company said it has been watching the national debate on gun sales and has decided to not sell guns or ammunition to anyone younger than 21.

“We support the responsible sale and use of firearms,” Leber said in a prepared statement. “Our goal is to support responsible firearm use and make a positive contribution to the local, regional and national discussion of this issue.”

At Fred Meyer, the stores stopped selling assault-style weapons in Oregon, Washington and Idaho several years ago, according to the company. In a statement to The Bulletin, Kroger said: “Recent events demonstrate the need for additional action on the part of responsible gun retailers. We are raising the minimum age to 21 to purchase firearms and ammunition in all of our Fred Meyer locations that sell firearms.”

Residents react

Changes in gun control won’t be made until people step up, said Bend parent and small-business co-owner Mandy Weston. She and her husband run Life Cycle Bikes, a bicycle rental business in Bend. She said the company will not purchase products made by Bell, Giro, Blackburn or Camelbak because of their ties to Vista Outdoor.

As a parent of two children, Weston said, she agreed with the businesses that are taking action.

“At a time when we have to think about transitioning our 5-year-old autistic son to kindergarten, that should be the only thing we’re thinking about,” Weston said. “But it’s not. We’re thinking about school shootings.”

Donnie Emerson, who coaches for a youth soccer club in Central Oregon, praised the stores that decided not to sell assault rifles.

“It’s the right direction,” Emerson said. “The more we can do to keep guns out of the hands of kids, the better. I have a long background of law enforcement in my family, and I believe there’s a place for these weapons, but it’s not in the public sector.”

Tom Lewis said everyone’s entitled to his or her own views. As the owner of the Lost Creek Armory in Bend for the past 14 years, he’s sold guns and ammunition from his store off U.S. Highway 20. He’s tried to do so responsibly, he said. There have been instances when he’s refused to sell a gun to a customer or suggested classes or delaying their purchase. Long guns can be purchased by anyone 18 or older and buyers must be 21 or older to purchase a handgun, according to Oregon state law. All gun purchasers must undergo a background check.

“I think we need to sell to people who are qualified to have a gun,” Lewis said. “Emotions are running high, especially when it comes to children, and guns are an easy target.”

— Reporter; 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com