OPINION:
Walmart’s CEO, responding to the August shooting at its El Paso, Texas, store that saw 22 people killed, and to another store shooting in Southaven, Mississippi, that left two dead, has decided to stop selling handguns and certain types of ammunition, and has also called on customers to please, please, please stop openly carrying their firearms.
Yep. Walmart’s gone weak-kneed.
As if stopping legal gun buyers and legal ammunition purchasers and legal firearms’ carriers would stop gun-related crimes in its tracks.
“It’s clear that the status quo is unacceptable,” wrote CEO and President Doug McMillon in a letter to Walmart associates that was widely reported in the press.
He went on to lay out the company’s new policy — to discontinue sales of short-barrel rifle and handgun ammunition; to discontinue handgun sales in Alaska; and to “respectfully” request “that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores or Sam’s Clubs in states where ’open carry’ is permitted — unless they are authorized law enforcement officers.”
Why?
“We believe the opportunity for someone to misinterpret a situation, even in open carry states, could lead to tragic results,” McMillon went on.
That makes absolutely no sense.
What’s to misinterpret about a legal firearm carrier openly carrier a firearm? It says bluntly: Don’t mess with me.
And why would Walmart elevate police above citizens on the Second Amendment chain, and allow for their open carry — but not someone who perhaps, ostensibly, quite possibly, has more firing experience than even many members of law enforcement?
“As an additional step, we commit we will work alongside other retailers to make the overall industry safer, including sharing our best practices,” McMillon wrote.
That means Walmart is going to put the screws on companies that want to place products on its corporate shelves to adopt similar anti-gun policies.
McMillon also made clear he’s going to use his corporate platform to pressure politicians to adopt universal background checks’ laws and ban, nationwide, the likes of “military-style rifles.”
And then he wrapped with the anti-gun movement’s signature show of appeasement — he made clear he’s “a gun owner myself.” He understands. He feels the tradition.
He feels the Second Amendment right.
But here’s the thing to keep in mind: McMillon’s new policy will accomplish nothing in terms of curbing gun violence in this nation. Nothing.
That Texas shooter, the one who shot and killed 22? He had been banned from buying any firearms already because of mental illness.
It just can’t be stated enough, or underlined too many times. Guns don’t kill people; people firing guns kill people. And simply outlawing guns gives the criminals the edge because it strips a crucial ability to self-defend from the law-abiding.
If McMillon’s real intent here was to help stop gun-related violence, maybe he should’ve banned the mentally ill from entering his stores around the nation. That would’ve at least touched on a root of gun-related violence.
That’s pretty stupid. But then, so is barring sales of guns and ammunition to law-abiding citizens.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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