Posted on 04/24/2003 1:39:49 PM PDT by DGallandro
Wal-Mart short-changes gun owners
Posted: April 11, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
I paid for a cup of coffee the other morning and got
some change in return. Before I put the dollar bills in my wallet, I noticed one of them had something written on it: "Don't fry bacon naked." I love this country; where else does the phrase "money talks" really mean something?
Which brings me to Wal-Mart Stores' decision to stop selling firearms in California. Yes, money talks – in many ways – and it seems as though the nation's top retailer has made a financial decision to short-sell the Second Amendment.
Hopefully, gun owners will make them pay dearly.
According to reports, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer virtually described Wal-Mart stores in his state as weapons fronts for al-Qaida. He claims stores were engaged in "systemic" violations of the state's gun laws because after examining six of them, his office found about 400 violations of state laws.
Wait – a word about those laws. They are some of the most anal in the country, and – in perhaps a bygone era – few of them would have passed constitutional muster. The fact that our federal courts have not struck down most of them is another matter.
Wal-Mart officials counter that store employees – who are not paid like your average CEO, to put it bluntly – mostly violated the state's gun paperwork requirements. On a few occasions, guns were sold to inappropriate parties, but even Lockyer's office has denied Wal-Mart showed criminal intent.
But rather than fight this blatant intimidation – and Wal- Mart's corporate execs have a rep for fighting rather than folding – the company decided to cop out, a pathetic response for a chain that built its foundation on good old American values.
Also missing from this anti-gun debate, as usual, is a healthy dose of common sense and reality. Thankfully, however, there are people in this country who can contribute both.
"In a nation of this size, it's virtually impossible for gun retailers to completely avoid, over the years, selling a gun to someone convicted of a felony, perhaps in the distant past," says Brian Puckett, co-founder of Citizens of America, a [sadly] California-based national pro-gun rights group. "In any case, many of Wal-Mart's actions weren't crimes since they were 'violations' of unconstitutional gun-control edicts."
"In sum, AG Lockyer is doing what he and other Democrats do best, which is harass gun owners, gun retailers and gun manufacturers," he added. "If Wal- Mart chooses to fold, then fine – that's good for our retailer friends who deal exclusively in guns and related items."
Folding is no longer an option.
The gun industry has taken its share of lumps in the past, but the heat is still on and is being increased by anti-gun zealots. The NAACP just launched a new lawsuit against the industry in federal court in New York, and the others – though so far unsuccessful – have cost the industry dearly. In fact, that's one of the stated goals of the anti-gunners: to bleed the industry financially until it crashes under its own weight.
Wal-Mart is the nation's No. 1 Fortune 500 company, with annual revenues of nearly $250 billion. It's one of the nation's primary gun retailers, and the industry needs all of them it can get.
I don't have any words of wisdom to put on my money for Wal-Mart, but gun buyers should speak loudly. We can surely spend our cash elsewhere as punishment for the retail giant's shameful decision to short-change a basic right while American men and women are fighting overseas on our behalf for all of our rights.
Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily.
I liked buying my ammo at Wal-Mart.
Oh well...if I'm going to BLOAT, I'd better BLOAT through mail order!
DG
Having worked in the retail sector, selling guns means that you have to keep track of paperwork, provide a locked vault, and have a minimum wage worker FEDERALLY responsible for the gun's safe keeping. Sometimes, it's just not worth the effort it takes to sell something. In that case, you either raise the prices, or drop the product. WalMart is NOT repealling the 2nd Admendment, any more than not selling some violent video games, or Rap albums is repealling the 1st Admendment.
This might get the people riled up enough do do something.
It'll be hard, but a gunowner has to do what a gunowner has to do.
...and good old Chinese products.
That's saying a butt full. There are about half a dozen CA State legislators, such as Perata and Scott, that waste their constituents time and tax money by the continous introduction of specious gun/ammo/tax bills. And yet, they are re-elected.
I hope Iraq has a better experience with democracy than California.
How does it short-change any right?
Misguided, misdirected anger and defamation.
You can't pick up ten objects in that store without getting eight or nine that are made in China. They move into an area, ruin several local, established businesses, and then hire their employees at half the price for half the time. That way they don't have to offer insurance--- though they might take out an insurance policy on those employees-- payable to Walmart, of course. Working for Walmart pays about as well as working for Amway!
I haven't set foot in a Walmart in five years. The day they all burn down will be a red-letter day for me!
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