VALDOSTA — The decision by a major sporting goods chain to stop carrying assault-style rifles in the wake of a deadly school shooting won’t have much of an impact on one local business that sells the weapon, according to the store’s manager.

“If anything, people will buy more,” said Ed Mullinax of Valdosta Pawn on Baytree Road.

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced Wednesday it will immediately halt sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone younger than 21. The announcement came as students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., returned  to class for the first time since a troubled teenager killed 17 students and educators two weeks ago with an AR-15.

Mullinax said sales increase anytime talk spreads about banning weapons.

“Anytime they ban a gun, people run out to purchase more,” he said.

Valdosta Pawn gets a “fair amount” of AR-15s coming through the shop as pawns and trades, Mullinax said. Most of the buyers want the gun for target shooting and hunting, he said.

After AR-15 patents belonging to Colt’s Manufacturing Company expired in 1977, a number of firms began manufacturing generic versions of the rifle, resulting in a large number of the weapons on the market.

Mullinax said Valdosta Pawn has no plans to stop dealing in the rifle.

“Blaming a gun for a shooting is like blaming a car for drunk driving,” he said.

A quick check of online classifieds sites showed a number of AR-15s being offered for sale in Valdosta by individuals, including weapons allegedly purchased from local sporting shops.

Valdosta hasn’t seen a real problem with assault rifles yet, said Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress, who also said he is against the public having such weapons.

Academy Sports, another sporting goods chain with a store in Valdosta, said in a statement: “We serve a broad base of customers, and outdoor sports, including hunting and shooting sports, are an important tradition and recreational activity for many of our customers and their families. We are strongly committed to ensuring the legal, safe and responsible transfer of firearms. We follow all applicable regulations relating to the sale of firearms and regularly review our internal policies and processes to ensure our legal and responsible sale of firearms and encourage safe usage and ownership. As a federal firearms licensee, we support the Fix NICS Bill to strengthen the background check system and require greater compliance with the law.” 

The owners of T3 Outdoors and Adel Outfitters were unavailable for comment. The operators of a gun show to be held March 10-11 in Valdosta also had not responded to inquiries by press time.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has 23 stores in Georgia, mostly in the northern and central portions of the state, while Florida has 45 stores.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.