It's been a week since a young man opened fire in an El Paso Walmart, killing 22 people and injuring many more. Only hours later, a second mass shooting occurred in Dayton, Ohio.
Like after many other mass shootings before, the last week has been a mix of mourning and renewed calls for gun control.
When Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R) addressed the crowd during a vigil for the Dayton victims, people began chanting "do something" over his speech.
Walmart is often called out after such events, since as a major American retailer with a ton of industry influence, if they banned gun sales it could be seen as a tipping point.
In the early '90s, Walmart stopped selling handguns (except for in Alaska). Assault rifles were removed from their offerings in 2015 and after the Parkland shootings in 2018, they raised the minimum purchasing age to 21.
They still sell shotguns and hunting rifles.
On August 6, CEO Doug McMillan posted an open letter to Walmart associates indicating that the company was taking the issue seriously.
"We will be thoughtful and deliberate in our responses, and we will act in a way that reflects the best values and ideals of our company, with a focus on serving the needs of our customers, associates and communities."
In response to that statement, Walmart employees began a Change.org petition asking the company to take a unified stance against gun violence, cease firearms sales, and no longer donate to the campaigns of NRA-backed politicians.
As of this writing, it has 58,356 signatures.
Sadly, they were sorely disappointed.
On August 7, store managers received a memo instructing them to take down any signs or displays "referencing violence". In the list of items, the only thing actually related to gun sales themselves was turning off any hunting promotional videos being played in the Sports section.
The rest were all related to video games or the playing of violent movies on display TVs.
It is the same annoyance felt after President Trump's live statement, which attributed the shootings to video games and mental illness.
Movies or console demo stations where gunshot sounds might be heard would understandably be upsetting and turning the sound off or choosing a different product to display makes sense.
However, a cardboard standee of a video game character holding a sci-fi blaster being removed when there is an entire display case full of real guns visible and available to purchase is just ridiculous.
h/t: Fast Company
