Walmart sort of slipped their announcement ending sales of handgun and “short barrel” ammo under the Hurricane Dorian news yesterday, but plenty of folks have heard about it now. The NRA wasted no time rebuking the megacorporation for selling out to the gun grabbers.
In visiting a couple of Walmart stores here in Central Illinois, store staff tells me that bargain hunters have already pounced.
First, the NRA-ILA’s pithy condemnation of the decision by Walmart.
“The strongest defense of freedom has always been our free-market economy. It is shameful to see Walmart succumb to the pressure of the anti-gun elites. Lines at Walmart will soon be replaced by lines at other retailers who are more supportive of America’s fundamental freedoms. The truth is Walmart’s actions today will not make us any safer. Rather than place the blame on the criminal, Walmart has chosen to victimize law-abiding Americans. Our leaders must be willing to approach the problems of crime, violence and mental health with sincerity and honesty.”
No doubt every local gun shop in America and other retailers who sell guns and ammo are rejoicing after hearing of Walmart’s socially woke announcement to quit selling handguns and ammo to law-abiding Americans.
Wally World has had a plentiful stock of ammo for a couple of years now and prices were always reasonable. Today, Walmart’s prices on ammo are consistently some of the cheapest around.
Small gun shop owners have told me in the past that their wholesale price on ammo is sometimes more than Walmart’s everyday retail prices. Now they won’t have the Bentonville giant competing with them any more, at least on handgun calibers.
Meanwhile, in the heart of flyover country, bargain hunters are out and about at the news of Walmart’s decision.
Employees at both the Normal, Illinois store and the location in Pontiac told me that several “gun people” have come in and each bought a thousand or more rounds. Apparently buying a case of ammo at a time stands as a rarity at Walmart gun counters.
In fact, in the Normal store, the clerk told me he read the announcement on CNN on his lunch break about an hour before management called him into a meeting to announce the new policy shift. But by then, he’d already had a couple of people who’d made what he characterized as large purchases.
He noted that he didn’t expect further shipments from their distribution hub, either.
Is Dick’s next?
Given Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack’s virtue signaling on guns these past couple of years, smart money would bet on Dick’s mirroring Walmart’s move ending the sales of handgun ammunition. Why?
Ask yourself…Can Ed Stack allow Walmart to out-virtue signal Dick’s? Nevermind how Stack’s post-Parkland wokeness on guns has cost his company $150m.
Maybe Stack will see Walmart’s decision and up them by arbitrarily closing the entire Field & Stream division. In his mind, that might atone for having sold America’s favorite rifle, the AR-15, along with other modern sporting rifles and handguns for all those years before he had his anti-gun epiphany.
Who knows…maybe Stack will go all-in and order that all Field & Stream inventory relating to firearms and ammunition be destroyed rather than returned to the wholesalers and manufacturers.
Kind of like he did with black rifles and magazines a while back. Lest law-abiding Americans seeking a bargain sully Dick’s reputation by buying the last of their handguns and handgun ammo at a discount.