The giant retailer Walmart made a controversial decision on Thursday to pull all guns and ammo from store shelves, ostensibly to curb “civil unrest,” some of which may be connected with the election next week.
But by Friday, Walmart decided to put the guns and ammo back, saying violent incidents were “isolated” and there was no need to hide the guns.
The country’s largest retailer had asked all of its stores to move firearms and ammunition to a secure backroom area of the store out of “an abundance of caution” on Thursday, Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg told NBC News in an email.
But, “as the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have made the decision to begin returning these products to the sales floor today,” he said Friday.
The phrase “an abundance of caution” has become an epithet for 21st century America. It has turned a once proud, strong country into a quivering heap of jello. What companies, governments, and school districts mean when they use the term “abundance of caution” is, “Please don’t sue me. After all, we used ‘an abundance of caution’ in approaching the problem.”
Of course, governors used an “abundance of caution” to initiate various lockdowns and justify other draconian shutdown policies like preventing church services.
Walmart may have been concerned about other violence not related to the election.
“After civil unrest earlier this week resulted in damage to several of our stores, consistent with actions we took over the summer, we asked stores to move firearms and ammunition from the sales floor to a secure location in the back of the store in an abundance of caution,” a Walmart spokesperson said by email. “As the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have made the decision to begin returning these products to the sales floor today.”
The company also removed firearms and ammo from stores in June after several of its stores were damaged in protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Indeed, most Americans have already decided to be prepared for trouble.
Consumer demand for firearms has jumped this year. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, estimates there were a record 12.1 million background checks for gun purchases from January through July, up nearly 72% from 7.1 million gun checks in the year-ago period.
Forty percent of firearms sales involves purchasers who’d never owned a gun, according to a NSSF survey of firearm retailers. It concludes that almost 5 million Americans bought a gun for the first time in 2020.
Now Joe, Kamala, AOC, Bernie, and Liz, try to get those guns from the 5 million brand new firearms owners who don’t trust you to protect their right to bear arms.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member