Walmart is set to end sales of handguns in Alaska and will discontinue the sale of short-barrel rifle and handgun ammunition in stores nationwide, the super chain’s president and CEO announced Tuesday afternoon.
The store said it will gear its focus toward long barrel deer rifles and shotguns, supply much of the ammunition they require and provide hunting and sporting accessories and apparel, Doug McMillon wrote in a memo.
BREAKING: Walmart says it will discontinue the sale of handgun ammunition and also publicly request that customers refrain from openly carrying firearms in stores even where state laws allow it. https://t.co/MzSqbfMfgr
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 3, 2019
“We have a long heritage as a company of serving responsible hunters and sportsmen and women, and we’re going to continue doing so,” McMillon said.
Walmart also asked that customers no longer openly carry firearms into their stores or Sam’s Clubs in states where open carry is permitted unless authorized by law enforcement. The chain also called for enhanced background checks.
“We encourage our nation’s leaders to move forward and strengthen background checks and to remove weapons from those who have been determined to pose an imminent danger,” the statement said.
McMillon did not characterize the change as a ban and said that the chain’s policy regarding legal concealed firearms was not changing.
“We know these decisions will inconvenience some of our customers, and we hope they will understand,” wrote McMillon, also referencing a shooting at a Southaven, Mississippi location just days before El Paso that left two workers dead. “As a company, we experienced two horrific events in one week, and we will never be the same.”
Great to see Walmart taking some kind of action in the wakes of all these recent mass shootings. If only Congress would follow suit.
