Multinational retail chain Walmart will be removing sale floors displays of firearms and ammunition from its U.S. locations in what the company describes as a preventative measure to keep weapons from falling into the hands of left-wing and Black Lives Matter-related looters.
The mass looting that is an integral part of every 2020 Black Lives Matter riot has routinely resulted in the sales floor cleanout of major retail chains such as Target, Walmart, and Kroger.
Riot and mass looting recently picked up momentum again in Philadelphia, after police shot 18-time arrestee Walter Wallace when he charged officers with a knife. Similar riots have followed across the country in the domino effect pattern that often materializes after a widely publicized officer-involved shooting.
Walmart said in a statement Thursday that “We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers.”
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No timetable has been given for when firearms displays may return to Walmart sales floors.
The items will remain available for purchase for customers in stores, as the measure only applies to sales floor displays.
Walmart added in the statement that the company only sells firearms “in approximately half of our stores, primarily where there are large concentrations of hunters, sportsmen, and sportswomen.”
In August, a Black Lives Matter organizer in Chicago stated that looting is “reparation,” and endorsed the mass theft of designer items from Gucci, Nike, Macy’s, and other chain stores:
“I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci’s or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats. That makes sure that that person has clothes,” Ariel Atkins, a local BLM organizer said at a rally outside the South Loop police station on Monday.
Atkins went onto defend her controversial call to loot as they were “reparation” and many stores are protected by insurance. “That’s a reparation,” Atkins added. “Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.”
Walmart has repeatedly endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement, and pledged $100 million in June to create an internal “racial equity center.”
UPDATE: Walmart released a statement on Friday announcing the return of guns and ammunition to sales floor, calling the riots “geographically isolated.”
JUST IN: Walmart returns guns and ammo to store floors, saying civil unrest was "geographically isolated" pic.twitter.com/wdFyEur8B5
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 30, 2020
The company said the measures to remove the items from sales floors Thursday were taken “in an abundance of caution.”
