I Can Understand Walmart Not Wanting Open Carry But Not The Rest Of It

I recently wrote to Walmart to protest that they have cut back on ammunition sales by eliminating calibers such 223 / 5.56 NATO and 7.62x39mm. That is a knee jerk reaction to the problem of mass shootings. In fact, it is no solution to the problem as those bullets do not fire themselves and others can easily be used in their place to kill. I can understand them not wanting people to open carry in their stores and agree with the reasons they do not want such to take place. More on their reasoning, which I find mostly to be much the same as the balderdash that is spewed by leftist anti-gunners can be seen in the text of an email they sent to me. That email was in reply to my email of protest to them about ceasing sales of certain ammunition (and I am sure they sent the same email to tens of thousands of gun owners who also complained, if not more): 

"Question Reference # 190905-046243
Subject
Company Feedback and Questions
Response By Email (09/06/2019 02:54 PM) Hello Glenn, We have reviewed your email and want you to know that we have shared it with the appropriate team. 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. Thank you for contacting walmart where we are always happy to help!"

There you have it, plain as day under a cloudless sky, Walmart (or walmart as they wrote it in the last line) is marching with the libturds on this one with a barely veiled outright call for an assault weapons ban. Not one mention of doing anything that would really help solve the problem but instead hopping on the band wagon with the left by eliminating open carry and certain ammo sales. Yes, they said that the root causes of these tragedies should be examined but that will never happen in today's political climate and meanwhile what are they doing but what the left wants them to do. Essentially they gave not a word to mention legislated mental health care improvements (we already know must of these killers are out of their minds), no mention of ceasing use of medications that cause urges to kill (we already know many of the killers had mental issues and were taking anti-depression and other drugs that often cause mood swings to violence, not any mention of institutionalizing the crazies who are running rampant and free in our society, zero to say about mandatory harsher jail terms or executions for those who kill - nope just blame it on the guns & the ammo as usual. While I can understand them not wanting people to open carry in their stores, the rest of it is the same old leftist anti-gun twaddle. It is pitiful.

All the best,
Glenn B

Wal-Mart Has a New Fireams Purchase Policy - It Stinks

I was reading through my emails today, including the stuff I get from the NRA, and this caught my eye: http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=3846. In essence it tells of new Wal- NotSoSmart Mart gun purchase policies. I didn't like them. In fact, I did not like them enough to get me get fired up enough to write Walmart a letter about the new policies, and to inform Wal-Mar that until they drop this policy, they have lost me as a customer. This may not seem like a lot to you, one guy writing Wal-Mart and basically telling them he will boycott them over their new policy; but let me tell you if enough of us do it, it can have significant impact - just think K-Mart. I ask you also to consider not shopping at Wal-Mart, and to write them showing your opposition to this new firearms purchase policy.

A copy of my letter to Wal-Mart is below:

"I have been a Wal-Mart shopper for many years. I have regularly shopped at Wal-Mart near to my home, and have also shopped at Wal-Mart when away from home both while on business or for pleasure. While I have shopped almost all departments at Wal-Mart, I would have to say that a large part of my shopping at Wal-Mart has been in the Sporting Goods Department. I am an avid firearms enthusiast, target shooter, hunter, and fisherman. My son also shops at Wal-Mart and he has the same interests as myself. I am sad to say that our shopping at Wal-Mart seems to be about to end. In fact, should Wal-Mart continue to implement its policy regarding firearms purchases - we will discontinue shopping at Wal-Mart altogether. We do not need to, nor care to, patronize a retailer who has decided to treat us like criminals when we are law abiding citizens, who make legal firearms and ammunition purchases. Yet Wal-Mart for some reason has decided to ally itself with mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City (where you have no current stores to my knowledge, certainly none that sell guns, but where I would bet you plan to open stores). Regardless of if you have stores there, you have allied yourselves with one of the top anti-gun people in the United States of America. You have changed your firearms purchase rules to include video taping the sale, and to allow Wal-Mart employees to deny sales to persons whom have had a firearm of theirs traced by BATFE (whether or not the person in question has ever committed a crime or not, or in other words even if the trace was one involving an innocent who reported their gun stolen). I wonder what other Draconian measure you will implement to make it more difficult for law abiding, and patriotic citizens, to purchase firearms and enjoy their 2nd Amendment rights.

I find these actions by Wal-Mart to be reprehensible. Therefore until such policy is discontinued, and until Wal-Mart makes an apology to the law abiding firearms owners in the USA, I see no reason to shop at Wal-Mart again, and I will not shop there for anything. In addition I will recommend that friends and neighbors also discontinue shopping at Wal-Mart.

With regret,
Glenn Bartley"

If you agree with me, then when you write to Wal-Mart make sure to mention the new firearms purchase policy, that you disagree with said policy, and that its continuance will effect whether or not you continue to shop at Wal-Mart. You can contact Wal-Mart here: http://www.walmartstores.com/contactus/feedback.aspx.

Then send the message out to others and ask them to do likewise. If one person does this it is merely a drop in the bucket, if two people do it it is team, if three or four people do it heck it might be seen as a conspiracy, if a few hundred people do it it may be seen as a protest, and if thousands of people do it - well folks - we will have us a grass roots movement - an anti-gun control grass roots movement the likes of which will be able to move mountains, effect politicians, and even make the mighty Wal-Mart tremble enough to relent its latest foolish gun-control policies! Who knows, it may even help defeat Bloomberg when he runs to become governor of New York (and one has to suspect this is what is coming).

Safe shooting.

All the best,
Glenn B