Walmart: Raising minimum age to 21.

[Tom Servo]

This is just more virtue signaling. In fact, Dick's made a big deal of stopping the sale of "assault rifles" after Newtown. Then the shortage hit, and they were selling them again. Cheaper than Dirt did the exact same thing, except they announced they were going to stop selling firearms altogether.

The thing is, "standing on principle" isn't very impressive when the party doing it doesn't have anything to lose. Even if they stocked AR-15's, sales of those rifles don't represent a significant source of income for those companies.

What I do wonder is how much business they're going to lose without realizing it. The pearl-clutchers who are demanding this on social media aren't their actual customers.

[Mike38]

Stores can decide to whom they can and cannot sell?

Depends on what they sell. Ask that Christian wedding cake baker that refused to sell to a same sex couple. The government decided for him. Or Chick-Fil-A, or Hobby Lobby.....

Personally, I could care less if WalMart stopped selling guns all together. I used to, but not any longer.

[Lohman446]

Depends on what they sell

It depends on to whom they restrict the right to purchase. Had this been a discussion about refusal to sell to a protected class it would be a different discussion. "Wal-mart refused to sell firearms to unmarried atheist, homosexual, African-Americans" is an entirely different thing. I don't agree with forcing individuals to do business but at least I understand the legal concept.

We have to be honest with ourselves about the positions others take to build the best possible argument for ourselves.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Knee jerk blunders by company exec's.
Such a ridiculous business decision has little effect on my life style. I buy my firearms and ammo from a business place that appreciates its Shooting Sports customers. Although I anticipate one day Walmart will also ban {barbed fishing hooks} thinking: Cruel punishment subjecting a fish too. i.e. Its inability to escape its hook for most of its species.

[doofus47]

Their company; their policy.
Your choice whether to keep going back.

[gbclarkson]

Knee jerk blunders by company exec's.

I don't think Was Mart's - or Dick's - decisions to change sales policies was knee-jerk. They waited 2 weeks to make a decision. Two weeks of cost/benefit analysis to come to make moral choice? I don't think so. It's PR.

[spacemanspiff]

I bet a shiny nickel that Walmart, Dicks, Krogers, etc will be back to selling long guns to anyone 18 or older that passes NICS in a year.

In the past, the aftermath of mass shootings made the Walmarts up here in Anchorage put all the black rifles out of sight, in the back storage areas. They still sold them, but they didnt want the public to be aware of it. Eventually they brought them all back out, and even started carrying more of the ARs.

[Mike38]

It depends on to whom they restrict the right to purchase. Had this been a discussion about refusal to sell to a protected class it would be a different discussion. "Wal-mart refused to sell firearms to unmarried atheist, homosexual, African-Americans" is an entirely different thing. I don't agree with forcing individuals to do business but at least I understand the legal concept.

We have to be honest with ourselves about the positions others take to build the best possible argument for ourselves.

I heard on the radio this morning that law suits are in the making over this WalMart thing. Seems there are a number of states that have laws considering 18 year olds as full adults, and anyone 18-19-20 years old can not be singled out and restricted from things a 21+ year old is allowed. So WalMart refusing to sell firearms to an 18 year old is illegal.

[tony pasley]

I have not shopped at a Walmart for years and this is just another reason to not shop there in the future. They made their decision and I made mine, and emailed them to let them know so.

[Dragon breath]

My first thought when I heard about Walmart stopping selling guns to 18-20 year olds was that some lawyer with a 18 year old child was going to make a fortune on a lawsuit.

[Doc Holliday 1950]

Let's think of raising the age to 21 & why it might be a good idea. At 18 I saw life a certain way. At 21, I saw life differently. It comes down to maturity and life experience vs. Hormones & being 18. I call on everyone to think about how & what they did at 18 vs. 21. Enlisting into the armed services at 18 is a totally different story. Here there are very strict rules & training that the average young person does not get outside of the service.

[rickyrick]

I’m sure that taking a stand on national social issues can help grease up some permits and tax breaks for some local projects. Making a senator happy can also please dozens of mayors and commissioners. Just saying.

[zukiphile]

Enlisting into the armed services at 18 is a totally different story. Here there are very strict rules & training that the average young person does not get outside of the service.

The issue is larger than firearm safety.

If an 18 year old lacks the capacity to make informed, responsible or rational decisions so that he shouldn't be allowed to purchase an arm, how is it right to permit him to sign away a wide array of his rights and bind himself to a term of service?

If a lad is too impulsive and lacks the ability to understand and weigh circumstances so he should be denied a rifle, isn't it terrible to give him a vote?

And what madness is it to let him drive?

[rickyrick]

I’m not sure where everyone thinks that the average military person gets all this firearms training that can’t be surpassed by a civilian.
There’s also plenty of 18, 19 and 20 year olds that go off the deep end in training. Personally, I think that’s too young to go to war in exchange for some
College.

[Sharkbite]

I dont think its legal to discriminate against someone based on AGE. If the LEGAL age to purchase a long gun or ammo is 18, it seems making a company policy preventing sales to someone thats 19 would not be legal.

Could walmart make a company rule to forbid sales to women?

[zukiphile]

Some discrimination is more equal than others. If you discriminate amongst people according to sex, federally recognized racial designation, or being over 40 but less than 70, you are a bad person and you should feel terrible. If you discriminate amongst people according to cholesteral, BMI, or their submission to campus-style speech codes, you are a forward thinking hero.

The process by which we pick approved victims isn't entirely intuitive.

[K_Mac]

We can all argue that 18 is the legal age at which an individual is an adult. The right to vote and serve in the military (or the obligation to serve if drafted) being primary examples. We also don't have any reluctance to try 18 year olds as adults when charged with a crime. Yet we refuse them the right to drink alcohol legally, and set higher age limits to hold many elected positions, among many other things.

Why the dichotomy? I believe it is because we all recognize that there is a difference in maturity between an 18 year old and someone a few years older. Ask an actuary why auto insurance is so much higher for an 18 year old or a physician about brain development if you doubt this.

Does that mean there should be limits on gun ownership for 18 year olds? I don't know, but I don't think we can just dismiss it either. I think it is a conversation worth having and for the reasons listed above I support a business's right to limit what they sell to kids. That doesn't mean I agree or will support them with my dollars. The market will decide if they are right or not.

[jcv]

I wonder if the people promoting this restriction realize that they're disarming all the young women under 21 as well. "If she's under 21 she's unarmed" isn't a message I'd like my business to promote.

[fourbore]

Is this a form of age discrimination? If walmart can refuse to sell to any one under 21. What if they refuse to sell to a woman or African American customers.

Now a military vet come home, 20 years old and maybe purple heart to boot. He is not good enough to buy a box of ammo? I know, preaching to the choir. I would hope.

[fredvon4]

I get surveyed all the time

So I sighed up for E-Rewards...as a frequent flier I added thousands of air miles as I answered surveys in my free time
Common theme for most retail type surveys is to have spread all through out questions about if I thought a company was Eco friendly , earth friendly, low pollution, socially responsible.....

Major corps have noticed a large segment of the population will not buy or will buy for some company based on how they FEEL about the company

Dick's made a good business decision... tick off very few gun buyers (in their chain) vs millions of soccer moms...

Delta IMO blew this one...SouthWest and American win...

Not too sure if Wally World should have kept quiet or not...I am a customer and in my brief travels around the USA and frequently going to WalMart....it seem to me they may be more like Delta than Dick's----Very broad customer base....

WalMart is likely to tick off as many typical frugal customers as attract more of the Socially conscious buyers.... who from my Texas view point...would rather shop Whole Foods type places..

[spacemanspiff]

There was an insurance industry article in my email in box this morning, explaining why these companies are taking such stands as this, or to abandon partnerships with the NRA.

The major reason is that 'the fear of economic harm by angry or disappointed stakeholders - called reputational risk - is much greater' now. Costs of 'reputational damage' have risen almost 500% over the past few years.
The goal of these risk management, financing and transfer strategies, is to "diffrentiate ethically responsible companies and ethical dutiful board members from their peers when reputational crises hit."

Only at the end of the article does the author make a reference to "companies need...to do the right thing...."

Its obviously economic reasons than actual politically motivated.

[rickyrick]

What you’re saying is, they’re afraid of Twitter backlash,

[Glenn E. Meyer]

It is a little amusing to see all the ranting. Lest you forget:

Walmart was late to the game in 1993 when it decided to stop selling handguns. Other major retailers such as Sears and J.C. Penney had pulled firearms from their shelves years earlier, as the New York Times reported at the time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.4cab91049db4

Remember when they cut out firearms sales in many stores?

What else is new?

When I was a kid, Macy's in NYC had barrels of WWII surplus long arms for sale - cheap. Do they now?