Two days after a mass shooting left 22 people dead at one of its stores in El Paso, Texas, Walmart says it’s not going to stop sellingguns, though some gun control advocates are calling on it to do so.
‘’There’s been no change in policy,” Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said, adding that the retailer has been focused on caring for customers and employees in the El Paso community. “It’s horrible … what’s happened.’’
But at least one gun control advocate said that if Walmart stopped selling firearms and adopted other measures, such as gun buybacks, the nation’s largest retailer could dramatically shift the gun debate.
After calling Walmart “the largest retailer of firearms in the world” in an earlier tweet, Igor Volsky, founder of the group Guns Down America, told MSNBC that “Walmart is such a major player … that if they really decided to lean into this issue, we could see some real change. We should all call on Walmart to do that.’’
n what was the first of two mass shootings this weekend that rocked the nation and gave even greater urgency to conversations about gun control as well as the rise of white supremacy in the U.S., a gunman entered a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire. He killed 22 people, and injured 24 more.
That shooting came mere days after two people were shot and killed in a Walmart store in Southaven, Mississippi, south of Memphis.