U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- A stop at the local Walmart on 3 June, 2020, revealed an empty gun display. No guns were inside the locked display. There were no cartridges available, other than shotgun bird shot.
Walmart had been trending toward gradual elimination of guns from its inventory for years, ever since the death of the founder, Sam Walton, in 1992.
Sam discouraged merchandise which was not made in the USA. Sam insisted each store carry firearms, including handguns. When Sam was not there to enforce those policies, the leftists who took over the company used each new “crisis” to remove firearms and ammunition from the store.
In the 1990s, Walmart stopped selling handguns in all its stores, except in Alaska. In 2015, Walmart ended sales of modern sporting rifles.
On September 3, 2019, Walmart announced it would no longer sell handguns in Alaska, handgun ammunition in all stores, or the nebulously defined “assault weapons”.
Two Walmart associates at the store said the firearms had been removed from the display because of national concerns over riots.
This policy was confirmed with articles in several outlets. From chainstoreage.com:
The retailer giant has removed firearms and ammunition from the sales floor of some stores as protests continue across the nation against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, every other shop in the tourist and dairy farm area where I grew up in Northern Wisconsin, carried guns and ammunition. Every bait shop, hardware store, most service stations, and many other shops carried guns. Guns were available through the mail, although handguns had to be delivered by private carrier instead of the post office. As a teen, I had no difficulty purchasing ammunition at the local gas station.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 changed all that. Almost overnight, guns disappeared from most small outlets, because of the cost and record-keeping requirements built into the 1968 law.
The crime rate soared. Homicides peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. Murders of police officers while on duty, peaked in the 1970s. The average number of police murdered in the line of duty, from 1970 to 1980, was 112 officers per year. That number had dropped below 50 a year, until President Obama and his support for racial organizations such as Black Lives Matter, ramped up hatred of the police.
The law was meant as a precursor to handgun registration. It failed. It did not reduce homicides or murders, even with guns. It should be repealed as an affront to the Second Amendment.
The unintended consequences were profound. An awakened membership changed out the old guard leadership of the NRA, in 1977. The NRA moved its primary mission from training to preserving the right to keep and bear arms. Training doesn’t do much good if you do not have guns to train with.
Concealed carry permit laws, both shall issue and Constitutional carry, proliferated as gun owners lobbied for the restoration of their rights. The homicide rate dropped. People legally carrying guns were shown to be extremely law-abiding.
The lack of other shops carrying guns and ammunition created the proliferation of the independent, dedicated gun shop. The dedicated shops became nexus of information, voter registration, training, and support for the Second Amendment.
Gun shows proliferated. At the shows, gun owners could meet, trade guns, ammunition, and information. They became another nexus of activism and resolve to restore a Second Amendment under near-constant attack. Almost no criminals get guns from gun shows. Gun shows are under attack because they are a center of political activism. My good friend, Alan Korwin, built his business at gun shows selling his highly successful line of books on gun laws.
Walmart will likely stop selling nearly all guns and ammunition in the United States. It will backfire.
Many dedicated gun shop owners have said they cannot compete with Walmart. Now they will not have to do so.
We now have more than 450 million guns and 100 million gun owners. In the first five months of 2020, we added eight million more guns, millions of new gun owners.
Guns and the right to bear arms are extremely popular in the United States. With the lawless destruction of property and lives in many leftwing cities and states, they are both becoming more popular than ever.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Not as if you could find an employee in the sporting goods department anyway.
“We now have more than 450 million guns and 100 million gun owners.”. And what good have they done us? We sat around quietly complaining to each other while our first and second amendment rights have disappeared. We sat around while religion was removed from our schools, politics, and homes. We sat around while fascists have taken over the media, at least half of Congress, our educational system, and now much of our country. Oh, if we give just a little they’ll be satisfied and honorable. I’ll sell you a bridge. I have an idea…Let’s not talk about the real… Read more »
@Westside It’s not difficult to understand – liberalism is a mental disorder.
Pain is an excellent teacher and motivator. Hopefully the pain the closet conservatives of America are feeling right now will help end their apathy and they’ll go to the polls in November.
All the anti Walmart rhetoric aside, they did because they had stores looted during the Ferguson riots. They pulled guns then as well.
Do we really want rioters to have easy access to guns? Not everyone should have a gun.
Locking guns away to keep them out of the hands of rioters makes sense. Surrendering control of your city to rioters isn’t.
@OV – Half ounce, quarter ounce or just under an eighth at a time? ( 230, 115 or 55 grains)
My last WM shopping venture ended 9/2019 when they quit selling handgun and AR ammo. If I have to go else where for that, I can also get the other ammo in a single trip….and not support an anti-2A company. Done with WallyWorld. Sam is surely spinning in his grave at what WM has become. Support your local gun shop. It might cost slightly more, but you’re going to need them to win the Second American Revolution..
StL: Then you quit too soon. My one and only purchasing of factory centerfire ammo since 1980 occurred in Dec 2019 at Wal-Mart when I bought thousands of rounds for a total of $ 1032.00. It is, for the most part, sitting on the floor eight feet behind me. I did give a few boxes to a friend of mine. When you can buy fifty rounds of Rem 55gr .223 for 14 cents a round, it would have been crazy to have not done it. And similar savings on several other cartridge types.
@RD – Lucky you. Live in gun nut central. By time I looked all they had left was three 20 round boxes of HST in 38 +P. Then they had none, though price wasn’t as good as what you got.
I’m an official, “who cares?” I quit shopping with them when they pulled the pistol ammo. Haven’t been there since.
I somewhat support Walmart on this call. If looters were to overrun a store and guns and ammunition were on display, it would all be easy pickings. The guns and ammo would fall into the wrong hands and probably be used in more serious crime, like shooting at the police.
That was my first thought, too.. but then, having recovered from the “bad name” WalMart got at the hands of the righ t wing librul crayzees, they are more “sensitive” to that market. I am convinced this is a “setting values” move rather than a good citizen protective measure. Sam’s gone for some time now, so the new owners can do what they want. I’ve not liked shopping there for some time now, and not for any “politically correct” reasons. I only ever went into our local K Mart store a couple of times. The place gave me the creeps,… Read more »
I quit shopping at Walmart 6 – 7 months ago. Haven’t darkened the door since. Their employment practices suck arse. They quit carrying things I used to go there for. Their remaining inventory is junk (maybe a step above the dollar stores).
The old Arkansas hillbilly Sam Walton was a huckster who started this five and dime store selling cheap goods in small towns until he got to store number 21 then he went on the stock market and then he grew by leaps and bounds running many small mom and pop stores out of business.
Now years later after Sam is dead and gone, his heirs want Wal-Mart to be the business that does everything killing off more small mom and pop business.
Greed has no bounds.
To be fair, our local Walmart, which had pulled its guns and ammo, has now put them back on display. This is probably a non-issue.
Thanks for making it easier to log on for comments; however, I made two posts within the last couple of hours and I don’t see them in the comments.
Is Zuckerberg running your comments section now ?
I never have any problems with commenting.
It never ceases to amaze me how gun control stalwarts (particularly among politicians), who know damn well that retail sales of firearms by FFL outlets, sell only to vetted (licensed) customers, continue to pretend that these same outlets, not to mention gun shows, pose a danger to public safety.
Damn. I am only 17, but I remember seeing an ad inside of a local walmart for bumpstocks. How times have changed 🙁
I don’t shop Walmart for guns and Ammo, I support our local gun stores
I read they are still selling them but they keep them out of sight in case rioters break in so they don’t get stolen
Yeah, they had to lock them away in a “secure room” in the back to prevent rioters from breaking in and looting them. In places like Bethany, Cameron, Chillicothe and Brookfield, Missouri. Riiight . . . . !
@CM – WW can claim to be just following ATFE advice. Remember article about ATFE suggesting FFLs take extra precautions during current civil unrest? Can you imagine political fallout if looters acquired even one pistol from WW? If WW had not followed ATFE advice hey would be excoriate. At same time congress would trip over themselves to close another “loophole”, piling more security and liability requirements onto all FFLs. I for one do not want WW looting to drive m6 local FFL out of business. Meanwhile Anitra, blm and others continued to tell us they were going to expand into… Read more »
ChinaMart is woke?
They are woke alright,I avoid them like the plague Leftist’s are, if I can’t get it at my LGS I mail order it.
Thanks for the update, I haven’t been in a walmart since they quit selling 9mm ammo. In my opinion, if we keep supporting the companies that are selling us out, then shame on us. We have to put our wallets where our mouths are, that’s all they understand.
Sorry I had to bump this thread up. Couldn’t find any other relevant articles for later in the year on this. Just thought I’d let you know Walmart hasn’t officially announced anything yet, but rumor is all guns may be going in February 2021. This will affect my primary job drastically. Just a heads up. Thank you for writing such a revealing article.
Keep up the good fight! The 2A is our insurance against tyranny.
I bet the pharmacy is still selling opiates though. The products in the pharmacy have killed more people than anything in that gun case ever did.
Will they be emptying the pharmacy next?
Hey Will. Isn’t the gun safe locked up also 24/7? No offense but I think you are missing my point. Not talking about Pharmacies all over the country, I’m talking about Walmart. The opiates that Walmart still sells are far more dangerous and additive than the gun/ ammo display. It’s kind of hypocritical. Those pharmacies kill more folks than the guns and ammo they sell do.
@V – Absolutely agree on WW hypocrisy. However I’ve used both opioids and firearms, never had desire to use up an Rx but shooting addiction runs strong. For me at least, gunpowder is far more addictive.
V: Now there is an appropriate nickname for yourself since you speak with forked tongue. So you are saying that the opiates and firearms kill people. That’s funny, I always thought that the use, by humans, in an inappropriate manner was what resulted in non-legal deaths of humans by drugs and firearms. Thanks for setting me straight. LOL!
@RD & @OV – Perhaps economy of words? Yes precision matters in both language and shooting, but I suspect we’re all guilty of occasional rapid fire. Give @V a modicum of “benefit of doubt” and perhaps you’ll agree with him rather than pouncing on him. Make friends for we need allies. In a many ways one can say that opioids kill. Some people are vulnerable to addicted the siren song of drugs becoming virtually powerless to resist. Haven’t heard of anyone unable to put down a gun or devoid of volition as to where they shoot. Thus drugs kill, while… Read more »
Finnky: I have thought about your response to my post. I would say that I (we) don’t need or want “allies” that are not of the same mind. I have walked alone down dark streets and “lonesome valleys” many times and will do so again rather than be unequally yoked.