Dick’s Sporting Goods Suspends Sales of Modern Rifles, Takes Guns Off Display at Conn. Store

PITTSBURGH — A sporting goods chain says it’s suspending sales of modern rifles nationwide because of the school shooting in Connecticut.

Dick’s Sporting Goods also says it’s removing all guns from display at its store closest to Newtown, where the massacre took place.

Funerals held for shooting victims in Newtown: Families and friends grieve for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., amid a renewed debate about gun control laws.

Authorities say a gunman killed 26 people, mostly children, with a military-style rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday after killing his mother. He then killed himself.

A statement posted on Dick’s website expresses sympathy for the victims’ families. It says sales of modern sporting rifles will be suspended during “this time of national mourning.”

Dick’s declined to answer Associated Press questions about how long the suspension would last or which weapons were being pulled.

“Modern sporting rifles” is the industry’s euphemism for military style semi-auto rifles like the Bushmaster used in the Newtown shootings.