Consumer Watchdog Demands Walmart Stop Selling Assault Weapons

After the unimaginable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut where a gunman killed 26 people, 20 of whom were children in a clear indication of the rising tide of gun violence in America - SumOfUs.org, a global consumer watchdog is urging Walmart, as the nation’s largest gun dealer, to stop selling assault weapons. So far, more than 85,000 Americans have signed the petition.

One weapon in question, the AR-15 is an assault weapon, designed to kill as many human beings as possible, and was the gun used to kill 20 children in the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary shooting last week. It’s also the gun used to kill 2 people in an Oregon mall the week before, and to kill 12 people in an Aurora, CO movie theater this summer.

“The AR-15 assault rifle has no place in our communities -- but as of today, it's still being sold in Walmart stores around the country,” said Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director for SumOfUs.org. “Walmart removed the gun from its website, but not its actual stores, and it’s still stocking other semi-automatic rifles. Will we need to wait until the next mass shooting for Walmart to take those guns off the shelves?”

Walmart isn’t the only business re-evaluating its ties to the weapons industry in the wake of Sandy Hook. Dick’s Sporting Goods is suspending its sales of military-style automatic weapons and the massive private equity firm Cerberus Capital has decided to drop its share in the manufacturer of the AR-15.

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN HERE: http://action.sumofus.org/a/walmart-guns/?sub=pr

Walmart has good reason to stop selling assault weapons as the guns and ammunition on Walmart’s shelves have already lead to significant bloodshed around the country. When Jared Lee Loughner shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other people in Tucson last year, he bought his ammunition at a Walmart. A young Missouri man who was arrested while planning to open fire on a screening screening of Twilight in November had purchased an AR-15 and 400 rounds of ammunition at a Walmart. Community leaders and law enforcement personnel from Indiana to Texas report that criminals can easily steal deadly weapons from Walmart display cases.

Walmart’s firearms sales grew by 76 percent in 2011, making it the largest gun dealer in the country,and in an October meeting, an Executive Vice President told shareholders that rising arms sales were a key component of the company’s marketing strategy.

According to Bloomberg, assault weapons are flying off the shelves as Walmart’s nationwide. Find out more here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/guns-out-of-stock-at-wal-mart-as-magazine-prices-surge-on.html