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Another day. Another mass shooting in America.


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I was wondering why #BoycottWalmart is trending on Twitter today. 

Walmart to stop selling certain gun ammunition

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart says it will discontinue the sale of handgun and short-barrel rifle ammunition and also publicly request that customers refrain from openly carrying firearms in stores even where state laws allow it.

The announcement comes just days after a mass shooting claimed seven lives in Odessa, Texas and follows two other back-to-back shootings last month, one of them at a Walmart store.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter said Tuesday it will stop handgun ammunition as well as short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber used in military style weapons, after it runs out of its current inventory.

It will also discontinue handgun sales in Alaska. Walmart stopped selling handguns in the mid-1990s, with the exception of Alaska. The latest move marks its complete exit from that business and allows it to focus on hunting rifles and related ammunition only.

“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 to be circulated to employees Tuesday afternoon.

The retailer is further requesting that customers refrain from openly carrying firearms at its Walmart and Sam’s Club stores unless they are law enforcement officers. However, it said that it won’t be changing its policy for customers who have permits for concealed carry. Walmart says it will be adding signage in stores to inform customers of those changes.

Last month, a gunman entered a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas and killed 22 people using an AK-style firearm that Walmart already bans the sale of. Texas became an open carry state in 2016, allowing people to openly carry firearms in public.

Walmart’s moves will reduce its market share of ammunition from around 20% to a range of about 6% to 9%, according to Tuesday’s memo. About half of its more than 4,750 U.S. stores sell firearms.

The nation’s largest retailer has been facing increasing pressure to change its gun policies by gun control activists, employees and politicians after the El Paso shooting and a second unrelated shooting in Dayton, Ohio that killed nine people . A few days before that, two Walmart workers were killed by another worker at a store in Southaven, Mississippi.

In the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, Walmart ordered workers to remove video game signs and displays that depict violence from stores nationwide. But that fell well short of demands for the retailer to stop selling firearms entirely. Critics have also wanted Walmart to stop supporting politicians backed by the National Rifle Association.

At least one gun control activist group applauded Walmart’s moves.

“Walmart deserves enormous credit for joining the strong and growing majority of Americans who know that we have too many guns in our country and they are too easy to get,” said Igor Volsky, Executive Director and Founder of Guns Down America in a statement. “That work doesn’t end with Walmart’s decision today. As Congress comes back to consider gun violence, Walmart should make it clear that it stands with Americans who are demanding real change.”

The retailer has long found itself in an awkward spot with its customers and gun enthusiasts. Many of its stores are located in rural areas where hunters are depend on Walmart to get their equipment. Walmart is trying to walk a fine line by trying to embrace its hunting heritage while being a more responsible retailer.

With its new policy on “open carry,” McMillon noted in his memo that individuals have tried to make a statement by carrying weapons into its stores just to frighten workers and customers. But there are well-intentioned customers acting lawfully who have also inadvertently caused a store to be evacuated and local law enforcement to be called to respond.

He says Walmart will continue to treat “law-abiding customers with respect” and it will have a “non-confrontational approach.”

Walmart says it hopes to help other retailers by sharing its best practices like software that it uses for background checks. And the company, which in 2015 stopped selling assault rifles like the AR-rifles used in several mass shootings, urged more debate on the reauthorization of the assault weapons ban while also calling for the government to strengthen background checks. McMillon says Walmart will send letters to the White House and the Congressional leadership that calls for action on these “common sense” measures.

“In a complex situation lacking a simple solution, we are trying to take constructive steps to reduce the risk that events like these will happen again,” McMillon wrote in his memo. “The status quo is unacceptable.”

Over the last 15 years, Walmart had expanded beyond its hunting and fishing roots, carrying items like assault rifles in response to increasing demand. But particularly since 2015, often coinciding with major public mass shootings, the company has made moves to curb the sale of ammunition and guns.

Walmart announced in February 2018 that it would no longer sell firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21 and also removed items resembling assault-style rifles from its website. Those moves were prompted by the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.

In 2015, Walmart stopped selling semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 style rifle, the type used in the Dayton shooting. The retailer also doesn’t sell large-capacity magazines, handguns (except in Alaska) or bump stocks, nor the AK-style firearm that was used by the El Paso shooter.

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7 hours ago, I Don’t Search I Find said:

 

Scary how much pull and influence the NRA has. They have even tried to implant themselves in Australia's gun debate.  Forever knocking our strict gun laws as anti freedom and giving advice to change them to right thing parties. They care more about guns than Human beings. 

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Not a mass shooting, but this could have been so much worse. I believe the gunman showed up too early. A Mariners baseball game just let out, but that station is like 5 stops down the line.

1 dead, 2 injured. They were shot on the subway platform, disgusting. Suspects at large. 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/3-people-shot-on-westlake-station-light-rail-platform/?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true

 

 

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:scared:

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/ny-female-school-shooter-arrested-pittsburgh-for-fun-20190916-huiwt64jcnhv7mrycxxa5crobq-story.html

Would-be female school shooter arrested for threatening to gun down 400 people

By BRIAN NIEMIETZ

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

SEP 16, 2019 | 12:41 PM

C5EXYZUOFBDEXCMBXE7JZVIOHI.jpg

Alexis Wilson (Pittsburg County Jail)

Oklahoma police arrested an 18-year-old woman who’d allegedly purchased an assault rifle and told a co-worker she intended to gun down 400 people at her former school.

Pizza parlor employee Alexis Wilson, 18, of Tulsa, showed a colleague video of her firing an AR-15 in a rifle range and told that co-worker she was planning to shoot current pupils at McAlester High School, according to ABC News station KTUL. An anonymous tipster alerted cops to the incident.

According to the report, Wilson recently purchased an AK-47, which they found in her home along with a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition for both. There was no mention on an AR-15, which is a gun frequently used in mass shootings, including the 2018 slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Wilson denied telling her colleague she was going to shoot up a school and claimed that she’d shared still photos with that person — not video — of her using an assault rifle. Wilson reportedly told police she was trying to explain to her colleague that not at all gun owners are bad people and isn’t sure why that may have been interpreted otherwise.

Pittsburg County Sheriff Chris Morris told McAlester News an 18-year-old suspect was in custody for making terroristic threats and that police had reviewed footage of Wilson firing a weapon.

"We’d seen video of her shooting guns,” Morris said. “She showed video to her friends and told them she had recently purchased a gun and told her friends she was going to shoot up the school.”

Wilson was a student at McAlester before leaving in the ninth grade, according to reports. She told police she’d attempted to enroll again, but was not not allowed to due “to previous incidents.”

ABC reports that while enrolled, Wilson had been suspended for bring a knife to school and having swastikas on her belongings.

She allegedly told police she used to be “borderline homicidal to the people of McAlester school because she was bullied,” but no longer felt that way.

Sheriff Morris said the threat was “something we take very, very serious” and that police acted quickly to apprehend Wilson.

The Pittsburg County Sheriff’s office has not returned a call for comment. Wilson is said to be in police custody.

“Way to keep these kiddos safe with your quick response and thorough investigations. I am proud to have you as Deputies, you represent Pittsburg County very well!!!!!!” Morris wrote to the arresting officers on Facebook.

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2 hours ago, Jazzy Jan said:

Brilliant, clever and heart wrenching advert.  It is more than horrible to think of children at schools having to go through this.  When will people ' wake up"  

Very brave and shocking because it shows the reality. Very in your face. The message is clear. 

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23 hours ago, Flip The Switch said:

 

This is powerful! It's a shame it has to be made at all though. What's even more shameful, is there are those out there that will watch this and not feel outrage in the way most of us here do.....but outraged that this is yet another attempted "attack" on their "rights" as gun owners.

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  • 1 month later...

America is sick. I’m ashamed of my country. It’s always we can afford lots of war & weaponry to spread death & destruction around the world and places guns’ rights over people. Corporations over people. Party over country. The only “civilized” nation on earth without a national healthcare system because the system itself is supported by “health” insurance companies and big pharma. “We don’t want to kill you just yet. First let’s get all your money, then we’ll see”. A criminal enterprise running the country. And CONgress is just as corrupted by corporate interests as the WH. 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

We need gun control and we need it now. FUCK the NRA hillbillies! 10 fucking people wiped off the face of the Earth in mere seconds, and the right still wants to act like this isn't a big deal. Where was the good guy with a gun to help stop this?

I'm so fucking fed up! 

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No, because Democrats don't want to make sure they lose the next midterm and the next presidential election. No administration has and will seriously touch on this issue, because they are far too afraid of the political consequences. After the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, it became clear that nothing serious would ever happen about it. If the killing of children hasn't raised enough outrage to put pressure on politicians, nothing will. Mass killings are now part of the United States DNA and are seen as sad but inevitable.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So sad that people are prepared to put up with mass shootings and loss of innocent lives to protect an outdated so called right. Guns are there to kill and have no other purpose. Nobody in everyday life needs to own a machine gun. It is so pointless 

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  • 1 year later...

😢😡 when will this ever end ?  Innocent people shopping in a supermarket losing their lives because an evil racist with a gun decided to inflict terror and kill.  How can so many Americans continue to care more about keeping their guns than about people being massacred. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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