Walmart announces major plans to scale back gun sales

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/03/walmart-announces-major-plans.html

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Well that only took 30 years.

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Gun control tends to become a higher priority when you’re one of the people getting shot at. (See also: the Brady bill)

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I hope the Walton family has some sleepless nights watching “Bowling for Columbine”

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This almost as if NASCAR stopped selling cigarettes at races and banning black t-shirts in NC.

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Good. Way late, and probably not enough, but still: good.

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Well, that sucks. Walmart was a good place to get just a box of ammo for later. It was generally a good price and you could get one box and it would add up over time for when you went to a meet or something. OH well, just have to pay more or plan more make shipping pay off when you buy in bulk.

And I don’t see how this is going to do anything but inconvenience/cost people money. They stopped selling handguns in the 90s. They stopped Semi-auto Rifle sales in 2015. Has either of them had an actual effect on crime?

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instead of using their incredible lobbying power to end retail gun sales and demanding laws preventing open carry in retail stores, decideds to “politely” ask people not to open carry in their stores

good thing I just stocked up on popcorn, this is going to be hilarious

I’m seriously never going into a walmart during any kind of busy hour again, might as well adopt Target’s bullseye on their walls

wtf is with this utter fantasy people have that they are going to be able to shoot an attacker before they get shot, or that the police aren’t just going to shoot every darn person holding a gun and ask questions later

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They still plan to continue selling guns, their compromise is to not sell ammo. Not sure i call that a success but it’s something

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It’s a step in de-normalizing guns in this country. A small, even teensy step, to be sure, but a step in the direction of us saying that maybe, just maybe, guns shouldn’t be so utterly ingrained in our society that guns & ammo are sold two aisles over from the 12 packs of junior’s socks.

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This is what is needed more than legislation. As the gun enthusiasts say, making things illegal doesn’t stop them outright. What we need is a cultural shift. When the culture shifts, then the legislation is easier. When politicians don’t see “I protect the 2nd Amendment!” as an effective campaign slogan, then we’re getting somewhere.

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Your move, Massacre Mitch

Don’t nobody hold your breath, the TGOP is enjoying the carnage of US citizens.

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He’s already retreated back into his shell.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/politics/mitch-mcconnell-gun-legislation-trump/index.html

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Impossible to determine without a control group. If you can provide access to an alternate universe where they continued handgun sales we can provide accurate statistics. Until then we’ll have to rely on estimates based on gun availability in other societies.

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I’m going to predict Orange Julius’ shitter-tweet tomorrow morning:

“Walmart has BETRAYED the United States of America! So sad that evil Hillary Obama got to Walmart and banned all bullets. Bomb Walmart tomorrow? SAD”

God, I think I need a shower now.

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  1. That isn’t how real life works. We don’t live in a lab. You don’t run experiments with control groups and the like when it comes to something like this. If their past policies had some sort of affect on statistics, even a weak one, it should at least be measured as a correlation (even if not ultimately being caused by it.)

  2. Them deciding not to sell something hasn’t actually changed gun availability over all.

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There will still be murders at Walmart, because there is a contingent of people that shop there that have absolutely no self-control or decency. Black Friday sales still exist there.

I worked for them when I had no other choice many years ago and I am still trying to scrub the violent stupid people smell off me

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Nailed it. The only organisation criticising this move, as expected, is the NRA, and at least those scumbags have the excuse of doing it because it’s something that affects their lobbying clients’ profits.

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Two thoughts, and you already mentioned one of them.
If walmart wasnt making a great margin on ammo then it was probably easy for them to stop selling it. I cant imagine they are able to squeeze ammo manufacturers the same way they would plastic trash can manufacturers.
Secondly… if walmart is a great place to get ammo, then it is likely some/many of these mass shooters’ homes have walmart receipts laying around. Walmart would probably not like to be known as the mass murderers’ super store.

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  1. So you’re saying you can’t provide access to alternate dimensions? That’s disappointing. We’ll have to fall back on observations of other countries that have alternative gun policies to the US.

  2. It has, in fact, reduced gun availability, overall. Handguns are no longer available at Walmart. That, by definition, is a reduction in availability.

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