Just days after the mass shooting that took seven lives in Odessa, Texas, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart announced the company would stop selling short barrel and handgun ammunition after it runs out of its current inventory, reported the Associated Press.
Walmart also publicly requested that its customers refrain from openly carrying firearms in stores even where state laws allow it. The policy change won’t affect shoppers carrying concealed firearms.
“We have a long heritage as a company of serving responsible hunters and sportsmen and women, and we’re going to continue doing so,” according to a memo by Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon that will be circulated to employees Tuesday afternoon.
Kroger joins Walmart in a ban of open carry handguns
Reuters is reporting that in an emailed statement from Jessica Adelman, group vice president of corporate affairs, she wrote: “Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers.”
“We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence.”
The Cincinnati, Ohio-based grocery store chain had already decided to stop selling firearms and ammunition through its Fred Meyer stores. “A year ago, Kroger made the conscious decision to completely exit the firearm and ammunition business when we stopped selling them in our Fred Meyer stores in the Pacific Northwest,” Adelman said, according to CNS News.
