Wal-Mart resists pressure on gun sales
The retailer has withstood similar criticism for years. Many locations have sold out of semi-automatic rifles since last week's Connecticut school shooting.
Wal-Mart (WMT), the world's largest retailer, is resisting pressure to curtail sales of semi-automatic weapons similar to the ones used in last week's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. Freedom Group, the corporate owner of Bushmaster, the maker of the weapon used by Sandy Hook Elementary killer Adam Lanza, gets about 13% of its sales from Wal-Mart, which is probably the one of the biggest sellers of firearms and ammunition in the country.
Many Wal-Mart locations have sold out of semi-automatic rifles since the school shooting, Bloomberg reports. The company's website says several guns are out of stock in five states. Prices for gun magazines were reportedly surging on eBay (EBAY), according to the news service.
Wal-Mart sells modern sporting rifles, the term the industry uses to describe weapons similar to the M-16 used by the military, in about 1,200 locations and does not sell high-capacity magazines for these weapons, according to Bloomberg. The news service quotes spokesman David Tovar as saying, "We remain dedicated to the safe and responsible sale of firearms in areas of the country where they are sold."
Sales of guns and ammunition have surged in the days after the Dec. 14 incident as buyers worried about a crackdown by President Barack Obama, who on Wednesday asked Vice President Joe Biden to lead a task force on gun violence that will issue recommendations by next month. It seems likely that a new assault weapons ban will head to a vote in the Congress in the coming months that the political powerful gun lobby will have difficulty stopping.
Gun control advocates can't overplay their hand. Attacking Wal-Mart too aggressively for selling guns to people legally able to buy them could turn the retailer into a martyr for the Second Amendment. Customers will rally around the retailer, like people did when Chick-fil-A was attacked for its views on gay rights, and buy even more firearms and ammunition. Gun critics should ask themselves whether they prefer that people buy weapons through a multinational company which is accountable for its actions or a gun show dealer where restrictions are not as stringent.
Wal-Mart has to be careful as well. Perhaps the company believes that pressure to curtail gun sales, which includes an online petition, will die down as the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary fades from people's memories. That would be a mistake. The slaughter of 20 children and six educators is forever etched in the nation's consciousness.
--Jonathan Berr does not own shares of the listed stocks. Follow him on Twitter @jdberr.
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The 2008 Supreme Court case shows definitively that the Second Amendment is about an archaic issue relevant to 1790, not to 2012. The Second Amendment reads as follows:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
The purpose of the Second Amendment was to prevent the new Federal Government established in 1789 from disarming the state militias and replacing them with a Federal standing army. It was a concern that was relevant perhaps for a few years around the birth of the country. It is irrelevant today. Americans do not rely on state militias in 2012 for our freedom from the federal government.
Though Justice Antonin Scalia tried in the majority opinion to use the Second Amendment to defend gun rights, the many sources that he cited are clear that the purpose of the amendment was to protect state militias. One source, for example, , that the purpose of the Second Amendment is "to secure a well-armed militia... ." Another source Scalia cited indicates that the amendment covers only arms that "have some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia."
a gun did not kill anyone a mentally ill child took those people's lives. if you use the incident above as a basis on reaction then the following should happen:
1 planes should be banned because two people slammed them into the world trade center towers killed how many thousands.
2 trains should be banned because it ran over and killed a man just weeks ago.
3 tractor trailers should be banned because yesterday one killed a lady on the highway in long island NY
what I am getting at is people cause these problems and it is getting worse everyday, we have to find out what is causing this anger in people to drive them to do these things!
Just for the record I AM NOT A GUN ADVOCATE ! I just want everyone to wake up and see what is going on around them, and more gun control will not solve it. The people who want to hurt others will always find a way to do so.
The president is sworn to uphold the laws of the country. Congress passes the laws and he signs them into law. When government takes away our rights--the courts decide the issue. The courts have said we can own and have guns. Taxing weapons and ammunition is okay. But, if a poor person says the government is taxing weapons and ammo to the point he can't afford them--the courts will throw it out.
Owning a gun is not subject to the president, nor can he do anything without Congressional approval. If you don't want gun control or ammo control--vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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