Wal-Mart Toughens Gun Policies

[RugerNiner]

Wal-Mart Toughens Gun Policies
By DEVLIN BARRETT – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wal-Mart, the nation's largest seller of firearms, announced Monday it will toughen rules for gun sales, from storing video of purchases to creating an internal log of which guns they sell that are later used in crimes.

J.P. Suarez, the chief compliance officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., appeared with outspoken gun control advocate Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York to announce the changes at a gathering of Bloomberg's group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Changes to come at about 1,100 Wal-Mart stores selling guns include:

_Creating a record and alert system to record when a gun sold at Wal-Mart is later used in a crime. If the purchaser of that gun later tries to buy another gun at Wal-Mart, the system would alert the sales clerk of the prior buy and could refuse to make the sale.

_Retaining the recorded images of gun sales in case law enforcement wants to view them later as part of an investigation.

_Expanding background checks of employees who handle guns and expanding inventory controls.

Suarez said the tougher standards will come with some additional cost to the company.

"The costs are we think part of what it takes to be responsible. Everything is not pain free," he said, adding that small sellers can implement many of the same rules. He did not say how long it would take to implement all the changes, but noted that software must still be created for an internal log of guns later used in crimes.

Suarez said his company may receive some pressure from gun rights groups, but added, "This is not a signal that we're getting out of firearms."

Bloomberg urged other companies to join Wal-Mart in the initiative called the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership.

"We didn't pressure them, they're doing it because they think it's the responsible thing to do," said Bloomberg.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had previously tried to establish a store in New York City but failed.

The mayors' gun summit also unveiled a new lobbying effort to close what they call the "gun show loophole" that allows people to purchase guns without background checks at gun shows.

Bloomberg founded the group two years ago with Boston mayor Thomas Menino to reduce the flow of guns from store displays into the hands of criminals.

The group, largely funded by Bloomberg's personal fortune, announced it was spending more than $100,000 on television ads starting Wednesday featuring all three of the current main presidential candidates voicing their opposition to the gun show loophole.

The ads will run in the home states of the three presidential candidates — John McCain of Arizona, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. It also will air across Pennsylvania, which holds its primary next week, as well as Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts.

The mayors group is trying to gather support in Congress to:

_End the gun show loophole.

_Require gun dealers to perform criminal background checks on all gun-handling employees.

_Close a so-called fire-sale loophole that allows gun dealers whose licenses have been revoked by the government to sell off their inventory without background checks.

_Add those placed on the terrorist no-fly list to the list of people prohibited from purchasing a firearm.

On the Net:
Mayors Against Illegal Guns: http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org

[Shorty]

Oops. Duplicate

[gnbrotz]

Shorty, I've merged your post with another existing thread on the same subject.

[Shorty]

Shorty, I've merged your post with another existing thread on the same subject.

Thats fine.

[billamj]

Guess that this knocks wallyworld off the list. Too bad, sometimes they had some very nice prices.

[jdpate]

Yet another reason not to shop at Wal-Mart.

[Frenchy]

WOW Wally World is going to Implement more of the laws that ALREADY Exist?

Video is always present at walmart, there are always cameras around every department, the only way they could make it more obvious there are cameras is to put signs that Say look up here and down here and to your left, now to the right, see all those 10 cameras? Smile You are on camera!

Background checks for employees that sell firearms should be a given, actually Background check for ALL employees should be a given, I would be very surprised if they did not already do this.

A register of sold items, the FFL already has all firearms retailers registering to a bound book, Walmart will get serial numbers of forearms that have committed a crime? Yeah right, They don't sell pistols and revolvers, so the registry is really a farce. Feel good we will do this for you all and Jack up the prices for it... First of all, most states have it so you can sell or trade firearms without problems Face to Face... The registry mealy covers their asses to say Yup it got sold, the instant it goes out the door, they have no idea who has it, who bought it, if its been lost, if its been stolen.

Walmart. Lowering My expectations every day. First by bending under the pressure and drooping firearms in most of their locations, now by saying some thing that changes absolutely nothing to make their image look good.

PS: I bet more people get mugged with kitchen knives sold at Walmart then they sell guns in a year.

[bert304]

I think it is pretty funny cause the Walmart by me does not even sell any firearms anymore. I never bought a firearm from a Walmart, I always thought they were more expensive then the local gun shops.

[XUSNORDY]

WOW Wally World is going to Implement more of the laws that ALREADY Exist?

Video is always present at walmart, there are always cameras around every department, the only way they could make it more obvious there are cameras is to put signs that Say look up here and down here and to your left, now to the right, see all those 10 cameras? Smile You are on camera!

Background checks for employees that sell firearms should be a given, actually Background check for ALL employees should be a given, I would be very surprised if they did not already do this.

A register of sold items, the FFL already has all firearms retailers registering to a bound book, Walmart will get serial numbers of forearms that have committed a crime? Yeah right, They don't sell pistols and revolvers, so the registry is really a farce. Feel good we will do this for you all and Jack up the prices for it... First of all, most states have it so you can sell or trade firearms without problems Face to Face... The registry mealy covers their asses to say Yup it got sold, the instant it goes out the door, they have no idea who has it, who bought it, if its been lost, if its been stolen.

Walmart. Lowering My expectations every day. First by bending under the pressure and drooping firearms in most of their locations, now by saying some thing that changes absolutely nothing to make their image look good.

PS: I bet more people get mugged with kitchen knives sold at Walmart then they sell guns in a year.

Frenchy,

Don't be fooled by all the domes in Wal-Mart. Most are "dummy-domes"......no cameras. It is just a static deterrent which is of no good stopping even the most inept shoplifer. However, they do have nice PTZ surveillance, but placed to provide surveillance in high shrink areas, points of egress, and frontline. I don't waste my Physical Security budget on dummy domes, plus it makes the place look ridiculous.

As for logs.....all retailers who sell firearms are required to keep internal logs. It is known as the A&D book (acquisition and disposition). All entries much match to a 4473, or a regularly scheduled inventory. These are often inspected by State and Fed LE. Been a few years since I had to maintain/audit them (thank God). It was rare that LE traced a firearm back to one of my locations, and I covered the Wash DC/MD/N. VA area.

I can only recall two firearms traced to one of my locations, both Mossberg 500 combos. One used in a suicide also....a no brainer....customer bought a Savage 7mmRem Mag....walked across the street and killed himself. PD was in the store before closing time.

As for background. You had to be 21, pass a drug screen, Esteem check (credit), SMA check (tells if another retailer fired you for integrity) and a criminal check to work the gun counter........sadly, you didn't have to know jack about firearms. Which was often the case.

FWIW.....

[WHEELGUN357]

oh yeah like i needed another reason not to go to wal-mart,,,, oh well... not like i even care bout wally world anyway....