In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously directed dismissal of lawsuits by Sutherland Springs shooting survivors and victims’ families against Academy Sports + Outdoors. The court said a federal database failed to show Devin Kelley’s disqualifying conviction, allowing the background check to authorize the sale. Nine other Academy-related cases were reported as pending.
In four lawsuits, filed in Bexar County, victims and family members accused the retailer of negligence for selling a Model 8500 Ruger AR-556, fitted with a 30-round magazine, from its San Antonio store to Devin Kelley, 26, a former airman who served a year in confinement following an assault conviction in 2012. He was released from the U.S. Air Force in 2014 with a bad conduct discharge. Kelley lived in Comal County, about 50 miles outside of San Antonio.
In November 2023, Academy Sports agreed to pay $2.5 million to the estates of three people killed by serial killer Todd Kohlhepp. The families’ lawsuit said Academy sold guns to straw purchaser Dustan Lawson, who transferred them to Kohlhepp, a felon barred from buying guns. Academy sought confidentiality; a judge ruled the amount should be public.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A sporting goods chain is paying the families of three people shot to death by a South Carolina serial killer $2.5 million after one of its stores sold guns to a straw buyer who gave them to the killer, a felon who couldn’t legally buy the weapons.
A 2026 Houston Chronicle report stated that Academy had previously come under scrutiny over allegations that it sold guns to illegal purchasers. The brief passage provides no details about the alleged sales, their dates, or any related investigation or outcome.
Academy has come under fire in the past for allegedly selling guns to illegal purchasers.
OpenSecrets reported $14,064 in 2024-cycle contributions associated with Academy Sports & Outdoors, including $7,328 to candidates, $6,057 to outside groups and $665 to party committees. It said the money came from individuals, not the organization, and reported no federal lobbying or outside spending for the cycle.