I tried to buy a gun at Walmart twice, and roadblocks left me empty-handed both times

I went to Walmart with the intention of buying a gun last week as part of an investigation into the placement, selection, marketing, and security of firearms in Walmart's stores, and to learn more about the retailer's processes governing gun sales.

My journey to bring a gun home from Walmart turned out to be far more complicated than I expected.

Overall, the experience left me with the impression that buying a gun at Walmart is more complicated than I expected, and that Walmart takes gun sales and security pretty seriously.

From the "duh" file.

Weeks after two Walmart stores became the scenes of deadly shootings, employees and customers continued to urge the retailer to overhaul its gun policies.

On Tuesday, Walmart employee Thomas Marshall sent a petition to chief executive Doug McMillon calling on the retailer to stop all sales of firearms and ammunition, ban the public from carrying firearms into stores and end all donations to politicians backed by the National Rifle Association. The petition had grown by Wednesday morning to more than 129,160 signatures, signaling sustained pressure on one of the nation’s largest retailers of firearms and ammunition.

“Customers no longer feel as safe as they once did in our stores,” Marshall wrote in a note to McMillon. “We must do more. We have the power to do more.”

Hargrove emphasized that safety was Walmart’s priority and that it would take time to “think through this issue.” Since the shootings earlier this month, Walmart has not instituted any policy changes related to firearms or security.

n operations manager who joined the protest said he believes in the Second Amendment but that “I don’t understand how that has included weapons of mass destruction” like assault rifles. The employee, Tom Misner, said Walmart should use its influence to lobby Congress for better gun control laws. “Congress will not do anything,” he said.

Walmart sells guns in about half of its 4,750 U.S. stores. The company stopped selling handguns in 1993. Last year, after 17 students and teachers were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Walmart raised the minimum age for gun purchases from 18 to 21.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... edirect=on

Everytown and Moms are likely behind it, WaPo didn't do enough digging.

I always get a kick out of people who urge a private business to not allow firearms to be carried on the premises. I mean. . . concealed carry. . . it's right there in the name. Just curious, anyone else stop patronizing places with silly signs or you just quietly go about your business and ignore the silly signs?

Proof that some journalists live in a bubble.

SpaceRanger42 wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 3:21 pm I always get a kick out of people who urge a private business to not allow firearms to be carried on the premises. I mean. . . concealed carry. . . it's right there in the name. Just curious, anyone else stop patronizing places with silly signs or you just quietly go about your business and ignore the silly signs?

If I am in a State where those signs do not carry "force of law" I ignore them. If for some reason someone asked me to leave because they spotted my carry gun (never happened - never will happen unless you frisk me) I would hit the doors instantly and be gone. I really don't care what they want and I'm really uncomfortable in public and unarmed. If there are no legal consequences I ignore attempts to disarm me....those places are Kill Zones. Might as well just put up a sign that says "No Armed Patrons Inside! Shoot Me First!"

And be done with it.

I have a rabidly anti gun Niece who continually tries to get her uncles and cousins to understand the American Tragedy and talk sense to US about guns and "common sense gun laws" and she never gets it when we tell her all the gun laws she thinks we need already exist....background checks and all that. She doesn't get it. Another law is not needed - enforcement of existing laws are the only laws we need. She also is verklempt about the fact that numerous family members *will not comply* with anti 2A laws as they are infringement and not legal laws.

I tell her if she wants to infringe she and her fellows need to convene a Constitutional Convention and repeal the 2A. Other than that stop infringing....we will not comply.

VooDoo

DMac wrote: Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:54 am Proof that some journalists live in a bubble.

Yup and all the Kool-Aid they drink makes them think buying a gun is like buying a Latte at Starbucks.

And reporters wonder why Trump got so much traction with his calls of "fake news."

senorgrand wrote:And reporters wonder why Trump got so much traction with his calls of "fake news."

The media can push so hard one way that they confuse fact with how they think or want something to be.

I work in the computer industry, and I routinely read articles about technology that are laughably inaccurate. Where it's clear the writer does not understand the technology they're reporting on, but just don't care to get to facts straight.

I remember reading an article on The Guardian (or Huffpost I get them confused) on a political related article that claimed someone leaned a certain way about "X". But when you go to the source, they actually did "Y". The paper later retracted when they got called out on social media.

Its not so much fake news as no shit news.

DMac wrote: Fri Aug 23, 2019 1:54 pm

senorgrand wrote:And reporters wonder why Trump got so much traction with his calls of "fake news."

The media can push so hard one way that they confuse fact with how they think or want something to be.

The problem with media reporting on firearms is that it's not only factually inaccurate (sometimes because the reporter doesn't know better, sometimes because they use Mom's or Everytown data--and should know better, and sometimes because it's been purposefully skewed by including suicide, etc.), it is pushing an agenda. It is beyond fake news and into propaganda territory. The ignorance of the reporter to the facts is one element, the agenda the article always supports is another. It is not news, it is propaganda.

Too, I love how the writer is under the impression that she would had an easier time buying a gun from a local gun store rather than a Wally World. My eyes hurt from rolling so hard.

SpaceRanger42 wrote:Too, I love how the writer is under the impression that she would had an easier time buying a gun from a local gun store rather than a Wally World. My eyes hurt from rolling so hard.

You think that's funny? There's a local columnist who tried to buy a gun, I believe after the Orlando shooting, to try and show how easy it was to buy a rifle.

He went to purchase from a gun shop, paid but had to wait for the background check.

Well the gun shop denied him. The columnist tried to say it was a conspiracy against journalists.

Turns out he abused his wife and had alcohol problems that weren't straightened out.

Oh you know what's even funnier? The guy pulled a statistic out of his ass that X amount of gun sales have no background check.

His article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/16/ ... eporter-no

Article about him: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/colu ... ore-owners

I should also add, since I've posted that ar15s are banned in Cook County/Chicago. It's that you can own an "assault weapon", but can't keep it at home.

I remember that guy!

Take articles from "Washington Examiner" with a grain of salt. It is owned by billionaire "Christian" conservative Philip Anschutz. It is part of the right wing media echo chamber.

K9s wrote:Take articles from "Washington Examiner" with a grain of salt. It is owned by billionaire "Christian" conservative Philip Anschutz. It is part of the right wing media echo chamber.

Doesn't change the sources in it. And it doesn't change that the guy admitted to what the Washington Examiner said.

I take every article with a grain a salt, all the national papers are owned by some billionaire, the only difference is how much salt I should take with it.

I read articles from the left and the right. Because the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. I treat news articles for what they are, secondary sources, and I look to corroborate certain claims.