The failing and flailing NRA, upon learning that Walmart would stop selling certain short-barrel rifle ammunition and all handgun ammunition, took it not so well.
In fact the official statement predicted that Walmart would lose business to other retailers “who are more supportive of America’s fundamental freedoms.”
Ahh, fundamental freedoms. I don’t suppose the NRA spokesperson is referring to our fundamental freedom to drive down the highway without being fired on, or to the policeman’s fundamental freedom to enforce a law without being killed. I guess because the Founding Fathers didn’t drive automobiles, that freedom is not one that we have a right to expect. But since they did know muskets, the right to bear them—and anything that looks like one or shoots something out of its barrel—is a guaranteed freedom.
Yes the NRA provides shooting courses and promotes gun safety, but that's like my running a seminar on how to escape a cage with a lion it. Make it easy—don't go in the cage. Or...make gun safety easy—don't buy a gun.
All right, so that's extreme and not fair to gun "enthusiasts"and hunters. I won't belabor the obvious inanity of the term "gun enthusiast", nor will I impugn hunters. Although I’m not one myself and find the custom odious, I also must own the hypocrisy of a semi-vegetarian—so if hunters have to hunt, let them hunt. Slaughterhouse workers, I suppose, to satisfy people of my ilk, must slaughter. I do remain anti-gun, but only because I’m tired of seeing people being killed by them—a circumstance I apparently do not share with the NRA hierarchy.
It is regrettable, but in no way surprising, that this group immediately went for the money angle—Walmart will lose business! They may in fact do so, but Walmart has its sites set on Amazon in the battle for e-commerce, and so far Amazon has not clawed its way to the top by dropping assault rifles on front stoops with a drone. As for Walmart, I'll bet the people who buy those giant boxes of Chocolate Cheerios will continue to do so, and the people who absolutely must have an assault rifle to defend their homes against feral cats will find another way to purchase it.
The NRA is so far behind the current zeitgeist that if they were a business model, they’d be out of whatever business they were in. They might just as well be guaranteeing our rights to own a cassette player or the absolute best roof antenna. Maybe their stubborn grasp oon the past is a good thing—maybe that pig-headed approach to rational gun control will undo them faster than any legislation could hope to. For the moment, though, let's recognize Walmart for having done the right thing for the right reason: that doesn't happen much in the area of gun control.