By Anna Levi '24
This summer, I went to a Walmart in Upstate New York. I was roaming through the aisles when my eyes snapped to a big box labeled “gun safe.” That couldn’t be right. I looked around and what I saw made my jaw drop. I was surrounded by guns, hunting devices, and gun safes. I was shocked. It felt ironic. How could a store sell products that maintain and sustain life but display firearms in the wake of mass shootings and civilian deaths? It doesn’t make sense for a store like Walmart, a place where so many people shop, to sell such a deadly product.
I was so intrigued that I began researching Walmart’s complex history with firearms. According to the Washington Post, Sam Walton, Walmart’s founder, was an avid hunter and gun supporter, so he decided to sell guns in his stores. Over 20 years ago, Walmart decided to stop selling handguns after other major companies did so, but many were worried that the decision would erode Walton’s legacy. In 2006, Walmart declared that it would stop selling weapons except for in a select group of stores nationwide. However, in 2009, sales plummeted, and Walmart chose to fill its shelves with guns once again. Several times, Walmart has stopped advertising weapons used in mass shootings. Over the years, Walmart has said time and time again that its sole purpose is to give people tools to hunt, nothing more. But we all know that’s not the way it goes.
Clearly, there are several issues with Walmart selling guns in its stores. Firstly, it is an open invitation for anyone to buy a gun. No matter if people use it for hunting or self-defense, it’s a violent tool that can be used to take a life, as it has for the past few decades. According to Gun Violence Archive, over 13,000 people in the last year have been killed by guns in murder, homicide, or unintentional causes.
Secondly, making it available to the general public allows anyone out there to purchase a firearm, including the mentally unstable and people who have the ability to commit a mass shooting. As stated before, Walmart believes all of its buyers will use their firearms to hunt. Which any realist will tell you, is wishful, if not unreasonable thinking. Walmart workers don’t know if someone is mentally unstable or able to use their arm to attack. That shouldn’t be a risk Walmart is willing to take. One Stanford University study led by Dr. Ira Glick took 35 mass shootings from the years 1982-2019, where the shooters had survived and were brought to court. Out of the 35 shooters, 28 had an untreated mental illness. Clearly, most people committing such murders aren’t mentally stable. Walmart taking that kind of a chance is not normal and shouldn’t have to happen.
Finally, having guns displayed in a store like Walmart shows the younger generations that guns are okay to own, that buying them is like buying a phone. That's something we should be fearful about. One study done by researcher Teresa Maria Bell in 2019 showed that over 5% of high school students carry guns to school. Within that category, 83% of students carrying guns were in states that didn’t have universal background checks. 5% may seem like a small percentage, but it presents the reality of the purchasing of guns under 18. When kids see guns on shelves like in Walmart, they find it regular to purchase one and carry it around, even if they are underage.
While this is my opinion, there is of course another side. Many people and large companies such as Walmart, will argue that guns should be sold in stores for hunting. They believe that people will use guns as a tool for hunting, not a device to murder hundreds of innocent people. While that makes sense in some cases, when you look at the big picture, it’s odd. You’re trusting people to purchase a gun, one that can be used to kill humans, and saying they’ll only hunt. They may, but they may not, you don’t know what someone is going to do until it’s too late.
Trusting people is one thing, but trusting them with innocent lives, letting them own a gun, that’s too much. How can Walmart continue selling guns after all the blood that’s been spilled because of them, all the lives lost? As David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting in 2018 said, “We're children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Come over your politics and get something done.”
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