Chris Devers
- A deadly shooting in an El Paso, Texas Walmart has ignited a conversation about where people get their guns.
- Despite two recent mass shooting attacks in its stores and rising pressure from activists, Walmart has not indicated a policy change regarding the guns that it sells.
- A few big-box retailers still carry an assortment of weapons and firearms. Here are the policies of 13 major stores that still sell guns in the US.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
In the wake of a recent deadly shooting in an El Paso, Texas Walmart, customers and employees of the company are pressuring it to reconsider its position on selling guns.
But despite two deadly shootings in two different stores, Walmart has not yet announced a change in its gun sales policies. And some are getting frustrated, taking to social media with the hashtag #boycottwalmart. A petition created by gun-control advocacy group Guns Down America is urging Walmart to remove all guns from its stores, though it is unclear how many signatures it has.
Attention is now also turning to other large chain retailers that sell guns.
The anti-Trump and generally progressive #grabyourwallet social media campaign has added stores that sell guns to people under 21 years old or assault-style weapons to the list of companies on their radar. Organizer Shannon Coulter urged people via Twitter to reach out to Academy Sports, Bass Pro Shops, and more to call for a change in their policies
Read more: Walmart says it won’t change gun sales policies in wake of 2 deadly shootings at its stores
Federal law requires only that customers intending to buy a gun be over 18 years old and pass a background check. But some big box stores already have changed their rules about gun sales to make it more stringent than that.
Big-box retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart changed their policies after pressure from activists in the wake the of the 2018 Parkland, Florida shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed 17 lives. Policy changes included raising age minimums for gun purchases and stopping the sale of certain weapons.
The Kroger-owned Fred Meyers chain stopped selling guns altogether in 2018 after customer feedback and declining sales convinced management it wasn’t worth keeping them around in its 45 stores.
Walmart is one of the largest sellers of firearms in the country, NPR reported. Mass shooters often buy their guns at local non-chain gun stores, though sometimes they get them from private sellers, gun control advocate David Chipman told NPR.
Despite the mounting pressure due to recent events, no stores have announced any recent policy changes related to gun or ammo sales.
Representatives for the companies in the list did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Here are the policies of seven major stores that still sell firearms in the US.
Walmart
Shoshy Ciment/Business Insider
Walmart removed assault-style semi-automatic rifles from its shelves in 2015 and changed the minimum buying age to 21 from 18 two weeks after the 2018 Parkland, Florida high school shooting.
The superstore has not announced any new change in gun sales policy following two deadly attacks in different locations of the superstore in 2019, including a shooting at an El Paso location that left 22 people dead.
Though Walmart made changes to its gun sales policies in 2015 and again in 2018, people are calling for more change via Twitter with hashtags like #boycottwalmart and #guncontrolnow.
Guns Down America, a gun-control advocacy group, started a petition that demands that Walmart remove all guns from its stores.
Walmart still sells a range of firearms in roughly 4,000 of its stores as of 2018, and remains the largest store chain that sells guns in the US.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
In the wake of the deadly shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack announced its two chains (Dick’s also owns Field & Stream) owned by the company would stop selling assault-style weapons and would require gun buyers to be at least 21 years old in all of its stores.
The company sold a gun to 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz who is accused of killing 17 people in a Florida high school, The New York Times reported, but the gun was not used.
Dick’s later said it would stop selling guns in 10 stores as a pilot program and announced in March it would expand the test to more than 125 store locations.
Though Dick’s CEO Edward Stack hinted that the company could remove guns from more locations, many of the chain’s 720 stores across the United States sell guns.
Field & Stream
Wikimedia/CHICHI7YT
Dick’s Sporting Goods’ subsidiary chain Field and Stream, which is focusing on hunting and fishing gear, sell guns with the same policies as Dick’s.
It has 35 locations across the US.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- I ate 8 chicken sandwiches from fast-food chains, and the best was also the cheapest
- ‘This guy has a gun and I’m about to die’: Fast-food chains are facing a looming active-shooter problem, with at least 3 deadly shootings in the last month alone
- Walmart corporate employee sends mass email urging workers to go on strike until the company stops selling guns
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Shoshy Ciment)