I think that every gun dealer, Wal-Mart included, should have the right to refuse a sale to anyone they mistrust for good reason. Say they appear to be a straw purchaser, or they don’t have valid ID, etc. I just don’t think a private retailer should make decisions of this nature based on Bloomberg’s criteria, since he doesn’t even know firearms law or that dealers are inspected by ATF or that buyers have to pass a NICS check. Bloomberg is an uninformed boob with a political agenda. Wal-Mart should not be subject to his schemes.
I agree. However, all we really know from this article is that Wal-Mart is collecting this data. They were probably already collecting it before, but now they may be organizing the data better, or just trying to score political points for something they already did.
Wal-Mart didn't say that they would refuse to sell a gun to someone who had a previously purchased gun traced. Actually, Wal-Mart doesn't even have a press release on the topic that I could find.
Since part of what Wal-Mart is doing is tightening background checks on employees selling the guns, I'm wondering if the biggest reason they are doing this is out of concern that some of their employees might be selling guns to people they shouldn't, and this allows them to investigate suspicious transactions better.
There are a lot of trial lawyers out there trying to make a case for liability for companies that sell guns that are later used in crimes. Wal-Mart has deep pockets, and a lot of those that might end up on a jury have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart.
If Wal-Mart does actually refuse to sell a gun to someone who had a gun traced, and that person is not complicit in any way, I suspect that we will then see a lot of backlash from gun owners, and Wal_Mart knows they make up a very significant number of their customers.
The appropriate action for Wal-Mart to take if the find out that a someone's previous gun purchase was traced would be to be especially vigilant in checking that person's ID to make sure they are who they say they are, so that the NICS check can properly determine if that person should be able to buy a gun.
We will have to wait and see how it is actually used.