Walmart Policies Won’t Help
September 7, 2019 at 4:58 a.m.
By Gary [email protected]
Enter Walmart.
They made a big splash this week when they announced they would no longer sell handgun ammunition or .223/5.56 rifle ammunition. They’ll also stop selling handguns in Alaska, the only place in America left where they still sell handguns.
They’ll still sell rifles and shotguns.
This followed an announcement last March by Dick’s Sporting Goods, which stopped selling firearms and ammunition at 125 of its 700-plus locations.
Anti-gun groups, of course, cheered the news:
”Walmart deserves enormous credit for joining the strong and growing majority of Americans who know that we have too many guns in our country and they are too easy to get," said Igor Volsky, executive director and founder of Guns Down America, in a statement. "That work doesn't end with Walmart's decision today. As Congress comes back to consider gun violence, Walmart should make it clear that it stands with Americans who are demanding real change."
I suppose there may be some merit to that notion that Walmart is some sort of outsized influencer in the gun debate. But the policy itself will do nothing to stop gun violence, which, of course, is its stated goal.
Besides that, it’s just kind of dumb from a retail standpoint.
It won’t do any good because only 2% of U.S. firearms sales come from Walmart. Their market share of ammunition will drop from 20% to 9% after the new policy and remember, that includes handgun ammo – 9mm, .380, .45, .357 mag, .44 mag, et. al. So it’s not like they were selling tons of .223/5.56 to being with.
It’s dumb, because they’ll sell you a rifle chambered in .223/5.56, but make you go get the ammunition somewhere else. Here’s what Walmart Senior Director of C108 S. Elm St., Silver Lakeommunications Delia Garcia had to say about that:
“... If we sell the firearm, we will sell the ammunition for it unless that ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber that, while commonly used in some hunting rifles, can also be used in large-capacity magazines on military-style weapons. ...”
Yeah, they’ll sell the hunting rifle, but not the ammo.
Now I’m not sure where mass shooters buy their ammo, but even if they did buy it at Walmart, what would be the likely outcome if they walked in and saw a sign that said, “We no longer sell .223 ammunition?” Clearly, they’d just go buy it somewhere else.
Nonetheless, this is where we are in the gun debate today.
It wasn’t too long ago that if you said people on the left wanted to ban or confiscate guns, you were told you were a paranoid, alarmist nutcase.
But these days, they’re talking openly about it. Democrat presidential candidates are talking about banning guns and New Zealand-style government buy backs. And make no mistake, buy backs are confiscation. Anytime the government forces you to sell something under penalty of law, that thing is being confiscated.
There is even talk in some circles about repealing the Second Amendment.
Folks are stumbling over each other to be the first ones to proudly penalize 99.9% of law-abiding gun owners in futile efforts to thwart that other .1% percent.
Problem is, that .1% will not be thwarted by these types of actions. They will simply ignore them.
I’m afraid the only thing that will stop mass killings in this country is a moral reawakening.
But I don’t see that happening anytime soon because when it comes to morality, we’re headed in the wrong direction.
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Enter Walmart.
They made a big splash this week when they announced they would no longer sell handgun ammunition or .223/5.56 rifle ammunition. They’ll also stop selling handguns in Alaska, the only place in America left where they still sell handguns.
They’ll still sell rifles and shotguns.
This followed an announcement last March by Dick’s Sporting Goods, which stopped selling firearms and ammunition at 125 of its 700-plus locations.
Anti-gun groups, of course, cheered the news:
”Walmart deserves enormous credit for joining the strong and growing majority of Americans who know that we have too many guns in our country and they are too easy to get," said Igor Volsky, executive director and founder of Guns Down America, in a statement. "That work doesn't end with Walmart's decision today. As Congress comes back to consider gun violence, Walmart should make it clear that it stands with Americans who are demanding real change."
I suppose there may be some merit to that notion that Walmart is some sort of outsized influencer in the gun debate. But the policy itself will do nothing to stop gun violence, which, of course, is its stated goal.
Besides that, it’s just kind of dumb from a retail standpoint.
It won’t do any good because only 2% of U.S. firearms sales come from Walmart. Their market share of ammunition will drop from 20% to 9% after the new policy and remember, that includes handgun ammo – 9mm, .380, .45, .357 mag, .44 mag, et. al. So it’s not like they were selling tons of .223/5.56 to being with.
It’s dumb, because they’ll sell you a rifle chambered in .223/5.56, but make you go get the ammunition somewhere else. Here’s what Walmart Senior Director of C108 S. Elm St., Silver Lakeommunications Delia Garcia had to say about that:
“... If we sell the firearm, we will sell the ammunition for it unless that ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber that, while commonly used in some hunting rifles, can also be used in large-capacity magazines on military-style weapons. ...”
Yeah, they’ll sell the hunting rifle, but not the ammo.
Now I’m not sure where mass shooters buy their ammo, but even if they did buy it at Walmart, what would be the likely outcome if they walked in and saw a sign that said, “We no longer sell .223 ammunition?” Clearly, they’d just go buy it somewhere else.
Nonetheless, this is where we are in the gun debate today.
It wasn’t too long ago that if you said people on the left wanted to ban or confiscate guns, you were told you were a paranoid, alarmist nutcase.
But these days, they’re talking openly about it. Democrat presidential candidates are talking about banning guns and New Zealand-style government buy backs. And make no mistake, buy backs are confiscation. Anytime the government forces you to sell something under penalty of law, that thing is being confiscated.
There is even talk in some circles about repealing the Second Amendment.
Folks are stumbling over each other to be the first ones to proudly penalize 99.9% of law-abiding gun owners in futile efforts to thwart that other .1% percent.
Problem is, that .1% will not be thwarted by these types of actions. They will simply ignore them.
I’m afraid the only thing that will stop mass killings in this country is a moral reawakening.
But I don’t see that happening anytime soon because when it comes to morality, we’re headed in the wrong direction.
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