“How Walmart Helped Make Newtown Shooter’s AR-15 the Most Popular Assault Weapon in America,” thenation.com headline proclaims. Ouch. That’s the media meme bedeviling big box retailers. In the face of criticism from gun control advocates, they’re abandoning ship on selling “military-style” semi-automatic rifles in the wake of the Sandy Hook slaughter. Walmart pulled the Bushmaster AR-15 from their web store. Our sources tell us that Walmart will off-load their remaining inventory of Bushmasters—which are selling like hotcakes—and then stop sales for an indeterminate period. It’s not clear if they’re discontinuing all of their “assault rifles.” ktar.com reports that Dick’s Sporting Goods is removing “certain models of semi-automatic firearms” from their stores. Dick’s is “suspending sales during this national time of mourning.” The retailers could well be shooting themselves in the proverbial foot; firearms consumers buy from “friends,” bear a grudge and have long memories (cough Ruger cough).
