Walmart execs are making some serious changes to their gun sale policies.
Like most of life’s bad choices, this is probably even well-intentioned, coming from a desire to be ‘part of the solution’ in stopping this ‘plague’ of ‘gun violence’.
That’s the most charitable way to look at it.
Another way to look at it is to see Walmart executives being played as an extra-governmental tool of the Left to prevent and prohibit law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second-amendment rights.
The ‘mantra’ recited by even big names and ‘leading lights’ on the Left has been that Republican politicians have been ‘bought and paid for’ by the NRA.
And haven’t we learned from long experience that the fingerpointing the Left has had a nasty habit of boomeraning back on them?
Now might be a good time to start asking which well-financed lobby groups OPPOSING the Second Amendment (like the ones that somehow gave David Hogg a meteoric rise to national prominence) are organizing in financial or volunteer support for their campaigns, or in opposition of their rivals.
Pressure groups who know they failed in the courts to undermine the Second Amendment in Heller are looking for other ways. They are pressuring politicians to make ‘incremental’ changes in legislation, for instance, chipping away at the right to self-defense.
But they are ALSO pressuring those who have anything to do with gun sales.
In fact, the NYTimes published an article pushing that as a great way to push their anti-gun agenda.
What if the finance industry — credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express; credit card processors like First Data; and banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — were to effectively set new rules for the sales of guns in America?
Collectively, they have more leverage over the gun industry than any lawmaker. And it wouldn’t be hard for them to take a stand.
PayPal, Square, Stripe and Apple Pay announced years ago that they would not allow their services to be used for the sale of firearms.
“We do not believe permitting the sale of firearms on our platform is consistent with our values or in the best interests of our customers,” a spokesman for Square told me.
Source: NYTimes
That was published only 5 days after Parkland. Before the bodies of the murdered were even in the ground, they were leveraging the crisis to push their pet cause.
Here’s the official message from the CEO:
Dear Associates,
A month ago, in El Paso, Texas, a gunman with an assault-style rifle launched a hate-filled attack in our store, shooting 48 people resulting in the loss of 22 innocent lives. Just a few days prior, two of our associates were killed by another associate in our store in Southaven, Mississippi. And hours after the shooting in El Paso, our country experienced another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. This weekend brought tragedy to Midland and Odessa, Texas.
In Southaven and El Paso, our associates responded to anger and hate with courage and self-sacrifice. Our immediate priorities were supporting our associates and the impacted families and cooperating with law enforcement. In parallel, we have been focused on store safety and security. We’ve also been listening to a lot of people inside and outside our company as we think about the role we can play in helping to make the country safer. It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable.
After visiting El Paso on Aug. 6, I mentioned that we would be thoughtful and deliberate in our responses. We’re ready to share our next steps.
We’ve been giving a lot of thought to our sale of firearms and ammunition. We’ve previously made decisions to stop selling handguns or military-style rifles such as the AR-15, to raise the age limit to purchase a firearm or ammunition to 21, to require a ‘green light’ on a background check while ‘federal law only requires the absence of a ‘red light,’ to videotape the point of sale for firearms and to only allow certain trained associates to sell firearms.
Today, we’re sharing the decisions we’ve made that go further:
We know these decisions will inconvenience some of our customers, and we hope they will understand. As a company, we experienced two horrific events in one week, and we will never be the same. Our remaining assortment will be even more focused on the needs of hunting and sport shooting enthusiasts. It will include long barrel deer rifles and shotguns, much of the ammunition they require, as well as hunting and sporting accessories and apparel. We believe these actions will reduce our market share of ammunition from around 20% to a range of approximately 6 to 9%. We believe it will likely drift toward the lower end of that range, over time, given the combination of these changes.
As it relates to safety in our stores, there have been multiple incidents since El Paso where individuals attempting to make a statement and test our response have entered our stores carrying weapons in a way that frightened or concerned our associates and customers. We have also had well-intentioned customers acting lawfully that have inadvertently caused a store to be evacuated and local law enforcement to be called to respond. These incidents are concerning and we would like to avoid them, so we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores or Sam’s Clubs in states where ‘open carry’ is permitted – unless they are authorized law enforcement officers.
We believe the opportunity for someone to misinterpret a situation, even in open carry states, could lead to tragic results. We hope that everyone will understand the circumstances that led to this new policy and will respect the concerns of their fellow shoppers and our associates. As it relates to concealed carry by customers with permits, there is no change to our policy or approach. This morning, we briefed your leadership team on how to communicate this change in policy to customers when needed, and they will be sharing that with you very soon. We will treat law-abiding customers with respect, and we will have a very non-confrontational approach. Our priority is your safety. We will be providing new signage to help communicate this policy in the coming weeks.
As an additional step, we commit we will work alongside other retailers to make the overall industry safer, including sharing our best practices. For example, we are exploring ways to share the technical specifications and compliance controls for our proprietary firearms sales technology platform. This system navigates the tens of millions of possible combinations of federal, state and local laws, regulations and licensing requirements that come into effect based on where the firearm is being sold and who is purchasing it. We hope that providing this information, free of charge, will help more retailers sell firearms in a responsible, compliant manner.
Finally, 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. We do not sell military-style rifles, and we believe the reauthorization of the Assault Weapons ban should be debated to determine its effectiveness. We must also do more, as a country, to understand the root causes that lead to this type of violent behavior. Today, I’m sending letters to the White House and the Congressional leadership that call for action on these common sense measures. As we’ve seen before, these horrific events occur and then the spotlight fades. We should not allow that to happen. Congress and the administration should act. Given our decades of experience selling firearms, we are also offering to serve as a resource in the national debate on responsible gun sales.
We have a long heritage as a company of serving responsible hunters and sportsmen and women, and we’re going to continue doing so. Our founder, Sam Walton, was an avid outdoorsman who had a passion for quail hunting, and we’re headquartered in a state known for its duck hunting and deer hunting. My family raised bird dogs when I was growing up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and I’m a gun owner myself. We understand that heritage, our deeply rooted place in America and our influence as the world’s largest retailer. And we understand the responsibility that comes with it. We want what’s best for our customers, our associates and our communities. 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. The status quo is unacceptable.
Doug
Sept. 3, 2019
Why is the emphasis on a particular KIND of firearm and the repetition of the ambiguous and literally meaningless phrase ‘assault rifle’? Because THAT is the drum the Press has been banging day after day.
Walmart still sells hammers and auto parts. And more people are killed by hammers and automobile crashes than by rifles.
And if they continue to sell handguns, far more fatal shootings involve handguns than rifles.
They are ‘ok’ with concealed carry. But they figure folks will get jumpy if they see a lawful open-carry.
Haven’t you noticed? The anti-gun nuts even freak out if a cop stops to buy a coffee. If you think there are any concessions short of full surrender that will please them, you’re dead wrong.
On the upside, the spirit of ‘get woke, go broke’ this will be a great opportunity for some opportunistic company to make a play for the market share Walmart be walking away from.
Related:
- Gillette’s Woke Parent Company Holds The Line Despite HUGE Reported Losses
- Dick’s Embracing Of The Left’s Gun Control Blather Was A BAD Move – Massive Shutdowns Coming
- Hey CNN: The DNC Is Going Broke, Is That News?
