Walmart is the largest firearms dealer in US; has roughly one-a-week firearms incidents

[Dog Gone at Penigma]

179. Not a problem

Walmart, although they claimed they were discontinuing selling firearms back in the 1990s due to poor sales, had lost in litigation due to a pattern of failing to comply with legal provisions.

In 2008, they made a voluntary agreement to more strictly limit sales, and to improve their sales training and practices - again, because they were doing things that were illegal. My understanding is that the way WalMart dealt with the litigation was to blame individual employees, who were not properly trained, or who were following what directions they were given, but then claimed that was not their corporate policy -- however the problems were not a few isolated incidents they were chronic, leading to civil litigation.

Here is the WSJ article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703367004576289230488920802.html

and here are the applicable quotes:

Wal-Mart hasn't sold handguns at its stores since the early 1990s, when it discontinued them save for special orders in Alaska. It continued to sell the ammunition. It voluntarily agreed to adopt stricter gun sales policies in 2008 as part of a pact with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

... Wal-Mart and other large retailers were notorious for lax training of gun clerks in the 1990s, leading to several lawsuits. But the code of conduct Wal-Mart adopted following pressure from the mayors in 2008 "makes them a leader" among retailers today.

"We certainly don't object to the sales of guns in general, but there was a history of problems at big-box stores" in their training of employees. "It was clear that the workers selling guns had no more training than those selling vacuum cleaners," Mr. Henigan said. "But Wal-Mart has since adopted policies that exceed the minimum requirements. For example they now refuse to sell a gun until they receive word that the Brady background has been completed; the law says that authorities have three days to complete the check and if they don't comply by then the gun can be sold."

A more recent example of WalMart having to enter into an agreement to limit their sales and make changes to their retail policy would be the discontinuation of tactical firearms in Indiana, because of problems:

http://www.abc57.com/news/UPDATE-Wal-Mart-takes-tactical-guns-off-the-shelf--173322761.html

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- An update to an ABC 57 News exclusive. Last week ABC 57 told you how Wal-Mart was not following a written agreement with the City of South Bend regarding the sale of guns.

ABC 57 found tactical guns and .223 high-powered ammunition it promised not to sell. Now, because of our news report, the retail giant is now taking those guns off the shelves.

Common Council Vice President Oliver Davis held a phone conference with Wal-Mart on Monday morning. Davis said the store was very apologetic and eager to fix the problem.

Reverend Greg Brown, a local minister on the city's West side, became concerned about Wal-Mart’s gun sales after two of the kids in his youth group said they were offered $50 to steal ammunition from the store.

"A gentleman came to them with a gym bag and asked them to load it up with ammunition and come out where they get tires," Brown.

ABC 57 went to the Wal-Mart off Ireland Road in South Bend. That is when we found a 12 gauge tactical shotgun in the display case, next to .223 high-powered ammunition.

Both items are not supposed to be sold at the store based on a written agreement with the City of South Bend.

"We had a great relationship with them and this is why it was alarming to me that they had not honored their part of the bargain," said Davis.

"A .223 round can shoot through a bulletproof vest, so we are concerned about our police officers safety and anybody else," said Councilman Tim Scott.

While here it appears WalMart was eager to correct their error............a review of their corporate history with a wide variety of non-compliance with regulation, agreements, ordinances, and law is a systemic pattern. Where they fix a problem, they often go back to that practice when they believe attention to their practices has lapsed. This is just part of what I referred to as problems with their retail policy. WalMart is not a good corporate citizen, and that is part of the problem with their gun sales and their gun incidents on their property.