Walmart Bars Sales of AR-15s, Self-Defense Shotguns

R25GII-1140x641Walmart has instituted a new corporate policy that bars its stores from selling semi-automatic AR-15-style rifles and semi-automatic shotguns that have a magazine capacity of seven shots or more, multiple news outlets report.

According to Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg, the massive retailer will replace ARs and self-defense and competition shotguns with budget-oriented bolt guns, rimfire rifles and pump-action shotguns. The spokesman denied that politics had anything to do with the decision, telling the Bearing Arms blog that a slump in AR and semi-auto shotgun sales prompted the company to pull those types of guns from its shelves.

While AR-15 rifles remain the top-selling long gun nationwide, sales volume has leveled off and many manufacturers and distributors have excess inventory on their shelves.

Though Lundberg denied the company bent to public opinion, Walmart has been the target of anti-gun groups who are pushing the retail giant ban some firearms sales. In December 2013, New York City-based Trinity Church sued to force a shareholder vote on whether “Walmart should sell products that are … especially dangerous to the public [and] pose a substantial risk to company reputation and would reasonably be considered offensive to the community and family values that Walmart seeks to associate with its brand,” including products with “high-capacity magazines.”

A Federal appeals judge tossed the Trinity Church lawsuit in April. (Read more from “Walmart Bars Sales of AR-15s, Self-Defense Shotguns” HERE)

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