Walmart: Assault Rifles, Semi-Automatic Shotguns No Longer Sold in Stores

In view of the dip in sales, a Walmart spokesperson on Wednesday announced that its stores will stop selling AR-15 rifle and other semi-automatic weapons.

Variations of the AR-15 have been used in other high-profile massacres, including the killing of 26 children and adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. “We’re as an alternative specializing in searching and sportsman firearms”. He added that the rifle was sold in just a few of the 4,500 stores. Walmart CEO Douglas McMillion previously indicated this move during a CNN interview last June. But in the spring, the company won a court case against Trinity Church, a Walmart shareholder, that would have allowed the church and other shareholders to vote on limiting gun sales.

America’s biggest seller of guns and ammo is taking assault-style rifles off the market. The removal of the firearms from Walmart shelves will begin to take effect this week as the retail giant is updating its sections on sporting goods in time for the coming fall season.

Lundberg said that the company will stop selling arms with high-capacity ammo magazines, the type that can hold several rounds of ammunition.

“Modern Sporting Rifles are extremely popular with an estimated 10 million of them in the hands of Americans since 1990”. “This seems to be a strategic decision of Wal-Mart to address customer desires”. “If there’s not customer demand there, we’ll phase it out”.

As a whole, gun sales are still robust across the country.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation said the demand for the pulled rifles is strong. Walmart does not sell handguns except through special order through some stores in Alaska.

Wal-Mart hopes launching its 2015 layaway program Friday, August 28 is the head start needed to win the annual holiday shopping marathon; a race which seems to get longer every year.