Walmart to Stop Selling Ammunition for Assault-Style Weapons -- 2nd Update
04 September 2019 - 7:12AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Nassauer
Walmart Inc. said it will stop selling ammunition for
assault-style rifles and handguns, further restricting the
retailer's gun-related sales and policies after two deadly
shootings in Walmart stores last month.
Ammunition that can be used in high-capacity magazines on
assault-style guns, as well as all handgun ammunition will no
longer, be sold in stores, the company said. Walmart stopped
selling handguns in all U.S. stores except those in Alaska over two
decades ago but will now cease such sales in that state as
well.
"As a company, we experienced two horrific events in one week,
and we will never be the same," Walmart Chief Executive Doug
McMillon said in an email to employees Tuesday. "Our remaining
assortment will be even more focused on the needs of hunting and
sport-shooting enthusiasts."
Mr. McMillon said the company has no plans to discontinue all
gun sales, adding that it has a long history of serving the hunting
community and that founder Sam Walton was an avid hunter. The
retailer's firearm selection is focused on hunting rifles and
shotguns.
"I'm a gun owner myself," Mr. McMillon said in a statement. "In
a complex situation lacking a simple solution, we are trying to
take constructive steps to reduce the risk that events like these
will happen again," he said. "The status quo is unacceptable."
Although it is one of the biggest U.S. sellers of firearms and
ammunition, Walmart has been gradually tightening its policies as
the nation confronts a rash of mass shootings. In 2015, it stopped
selling assault-style rifles. Last year the company raised the
minimum age to purchase guns or ammunition to 21 after a deadly
shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.
Walmart, the country's largest retailer, said last month that it
sells around 2% of firearms and 20% of the ammunition in the U.S.,
which the company believes places it outside the top three sellers
of guns in the country.
After taking some types of ammunition off shelves, Walmart said
Tuesday that it expected its market share of ammunition sales would
fall to around 6% to 9% over time.
Walmart's ammunition changes exceed the measures taken by other
big retailers that have tightened their gun policies in recent
years after deadly shootings. Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. raised the
gun- and ammunition-buying age to 21 and stopped selling
assault-style rifles last year. Dick's continues to sell some
ammunition that can be used in assault-style firearms, according to
the company's website. The company declined to comment.
Firearm sales have flattened since Donald Trump became
president, as buyers tend to stock up when they anticipate tighter
gun regulations. Most firearms aren't sold at big retail chains,
according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Guns are
often purchased at thousands of unaffiliated gun shops or at gun
shows.
Ammunition is a low-margin product, and ammunition for
AR-15-style rifles of the sort Walmart will stop selling is often
lower-margin than hunting ammunition, said Jim Pledger, a firearms
industry consultant. But "with this announcement, ammunition sales
will be off the charts" as gun enthusiasts fear similar moves from
other retailers, said Mr. Pledger. "Walmart is an easy place to buy
ammo normally."
Some national sporting retailers, including Cabela's, Bass Pro
Shops and Academy Sports & Outdoors continue to sell AR-15 and
similar-style firearms and ammunition.
Last month, a gunman walked into an El Paso, Texas, Walmart with
an AK-style semiautomatic rifle and killed 22 people, in one of the
deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Earlier that week, a Walmart
employee shot and killed two other workers in a Mississippi Walmart
store.
Walmart will no longer allow shoppers to carry firearms openly
inside any of its stores. Shoppers with concealed-carry permits can
continue to carry guns, the company said.
Since the El Paso shooting, a number of incidents of people
carrying weapons that frightened workers and customers in Walmart
stores have caused locations to be evacuated and local
law-enforcement to be called, Mr. McMillon said in his email. "We
are respectfully requesting that customers no longer openly carry
firearms," he said.
Some activists and employees have called for Walmart to end gun
sales or stop giving money to politicians that support the National
Rifle Association, a leading gun-rights group. Walmart didn't
specify any changes to its political giving.
The NRA called Walmart's decision "shameful," in a statement
Tuesday. "Lines at Walmart will soon be replaced by lines at other
retailers who are more supportive of America's fundamental
freedoms," the group said.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 03, 2019 16:57 ET (20:57 GMT)
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