When you think of gun sellers, it does not get much bigger than Walmart and Dick's Sporting Goods stores.
These two huge retail gun sellers did put some restrictions for their gun sales moving forward, despite the looming threat of rising anger from gun enthusiasts and NRA activists, which might even rise to the level of boycott.
Doing anything that might fuel the apparently great anger of gun enthusiasts, or provoke the highly organized anger of the NRA, has been a constant fear for many, including politicians and, of course, retail stores that sell guns.
Yet, Walmart and Dick's decided that action needed to be taken, with a growing disapproval across the country rising against that same NRA and the gun enthusiasts that support them.
Yesterday, Dick's Sporting Goods announced that it was ending all sales of assault-style rifles, effective immediately. It also announced that it would no longer sell high-capacity magazines, and would not sell guns to anyone under the age of 21, even if local laws allow younger people to buy guns.
Later in the day, Walmart followed suit and announced that it would no longer sell guns to anyone under the age of 21 years, and also, it would no longer sell guns resembling assault rifles, including toy guns.
All of this happened while the gun debate is raging stronger than it has in many years, with more and more people feeling pressured to actually do something. Even the White House is not immune. President Trump is all over the news this morning, claiming that while the NRA has enormous power over "you people," meaning other politicians, they have apparently relatively little power over him, personally.
We'll see.
I will say this: for the first time in a very long time, the passion driving action on restricting gun access seems to be matching, and perhaps even surpassing, the famous passion of gun advocates, particularly the NRA. Numerous corporations have severed their ties with the NRA recently, including Fed Ex, UPS, First National Bank, Delta, United Airlines, Symantec, MetLife, Hertz, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, National, Paramount, and Starkey.
There are plans for walkouts in schools in numerous cities throughout the country on March 14th, the one-month anniversary of the shooting at Parkland, and there is supposed to be a national march for gun control on March 24th.
For once, indeed, it does seem like momentum is on the side of people in favor of reasonable gun control measures, and the NRA, and gun enthusiasts (some people refer to them as "ammosexuals") seem even more on the defensive than usual.
Again, though, let's see if this time, something happens. Enough is enough after Parkland, sure. But wasn't enough enough after Sutherland Springs, or Las Vegas? Wasn't enough enough after Orlando, or San Bernardino? What about Sandy Hook, when 26 people, including 20 children in elementary school, were killed? Wasn't enough enough then?
You might think it would be. The shock value of Sandy Hook was unbelievable, even for a mass shooting. Yet, that was not enough to jolt the country enough to change the gun laws, to make some commonsense reforms. Just months earlier, there was the shooting in the Aurora movie theater, and that failed to truly shock the nation into taking serious action, as well. The shooting at Tuscon before that was not shocking enough, and the shooting at Virginia Tech also failed to force more sensible gun laws. And, of course, Columbine shocked the nation, and indeed the world, yet it also ultimately did not change the landscape of our national gun laws, either.
So with all of that, you begin to grow wary, and skeptical that this country will ever make any serious move towards sensible gun laws. I mean, really, how can not giving guns, let alone assault-style rifles, to people with a history of violent behavior, be even remotely controversial?
Somehow, though, it is. At least in the United States, it is. Other countries put in sensible gun legislation after horrific mass shootings and, low and behold, the legislation seems to have worked. Look at Australia, as one of the most obvious examples. They had a horrible mass shooting that killed over 30 in 1996, and they tightened their gun laws afterward. It worked, because there has not been a mass shooting there since. And unlike what fear-mongering gun nuts might tell you here, none of the various nations that enacted sensible gun laws turned into evil dictatorships, where citizens were packed into cattle cars and taken to concentration or death camps. All that these laws did was make the nations safer, by making guns a bit more difficult to obtain. Certainly not impossible to obtain, but to have some standards, nevertheless.
Maybe I am wrong, and this time, indeed, more sensible gun laws will be passed. Hopefully, I am wrong. But something in this country truly is different than the rest of the world, and not necessarily in a good or positive way, I would say. So, let's see what happens, although I will say that it has been both impressive and refreshing to see such a huge backlash like never before against the NRA and gun enthusiasts, who have simply gone too far for far too long in remaining blind to horrific violence and terrible rates of violent crimes and deaths caused by guns in this country.
Yes, the time is now. But then again, hasn't it been time since at least Columbine, which was nearly 19 years ago? If we can go almost two full decades without passing some kind of really meaningful gun control laws, then it makes you wonder what it will take for Americans to get sick of the NRA and their backers, and to tell them to go to hell? Perhaps we are finally seeing a bit of that, but I am willing to bet that there will be more such actions in the future, until we finally do figure out something that prevents a good amount of the staggering levels of gun violence that we see in this country.
You know, kind of like the rest of the world already pretty much has?
There are plans for walkouts in schools in numerous cities throughout the country on March 14th, the one-month anniversary of the shooting at Parkland, and there is supposed to be a national march for gun control on March 24th.
For once, indeed, it does seem like momentum is on the side of people in favor of reasonable gun control measures, and the NRA, and gun enthusiasts (some people refer to them as "ammosexuals") seem even more on the defensive than usual.
Again, though, let's see if this time, something happens. Enough is enough after Parkland, sure. But wasn't enough enough after Sutherland Springs, or Las Vegas? Wasn't enough enough after Orlando, or San Bernardino? What about Sandy Hook, when 26 people, including 20 children in elementary school, were killed? Wasn't enough enough then?
You might think it would be. The shock value of Sandy Hook was unbelievable, even for a mass shooting. Yet, that was not enough to jolt the country enough to change the gun laws, to make some commonsense reforms. Just months earlier, there was the shooting in the Aurora movie theater, and that failed to truly shock the nation into taking serious action, as well. The shooting at Tuscon before that was not shocking enough, and the shooting at Virginia Tech also failed to force more sensible gun laws. And, of course, Columbine shocked the nation, and indeed the world, yet it also ultimately did not change the landscape of our national gun laws, either.
So with all of that, you begin to grow wary, and skeptical that this country will ever make any serious move towards sensible gun laws. I mean, really, how can not giving guns, let alone assault-style rifles, to people with a history of violent behavior, be even remotely controversial?
Somehow, though, it is. At least in the United States, it is. Other countries put in sensible gun legislation after horrific mass shootings and, low and behold, the legislation seems to have worked. Look at Australia, as one of the most obvious examples. They had a horrible mass shooting that killed over 30 in 1996, and they tightened their gun laws afterward. It worked, because there has not been a mass shooting there since. And unlike what fear-mongering gun nuts might tell you here, none of the various nations that enacted sensible gun laws turned into evil dictatorships, where citizens were packed into cattle cars and taken to concentration or death camps. All that these laws did was make the nations safer, by making guns a bit more difficult to obtain. Certainly not impossible to obtain, but to have some standards, nevertheless.
Maybe I am wrong, and this time, indeed, more sensible gun laws will be passed. Hopefully, I am wrong. But something in this country truly is different than the rest of the world, and not necessarily in a good or positive way, I would say. So, let's see what happens, although I will say that it has been both impressive and refreshing to see such a huge backlash like never before against the NRA and gun enthusiasts, who have simply gone too far for far too long in remaining blind to horrific violence and terrible rates of violent crimes and deaths caused by guns in this country.
Yes, the time is now. But then again, hasn't it been time since at least Columbine, which was nearly 19 years ago? If we can go almost two full decades without passing some kind of really meaningful gun control laws, then it makes you wonder what it will take for Americans to get sick of the NRA and their backers, and to tell them to go to hell? Perhaps we are finally seeing a bit of that, but I am willing to bet that there will be more such actions in the future, until we finally do figure out something that prevents a good amount of the staggering levels of gun violence that we see in this country.
You know, kind of like the rest of the world already pretty much has?
Walmart and Dick’s Raise Minimum Age for Gun Buyers to 21 By JULIE CRESWELL and MICHAEL CORKERYFEB. 28, 2018:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/business/walmart-and-dicks-major-gun-retailers-will-tighten-rules-on-guns-they-sell.html
Gun-control activists aren't backing down on a boycott of Apple, Amazon, and FedEx — here's how it could affect sales by Leanna Garfield, March 1, 2018:
One By One, Companies Cut Ties With The NRA by Amy Held, February 23, 2018:
More than a dozen businesses ran away from the NRA. How it went down by Jackie Wattles, February 26, 2018:
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