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Walmart raises age requirement for buying firearms, ammunition

The change comes 'in light of recent events.'

 

Kris Seavers

Layer 8

Posted on Feb 28, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 11:13 pm CDT

Walmart will now require customers buying firearms or ammunition to be 21-years-old, Huffington Post reported Wednesday.

The company’s firearm policy change comes “in light of recent events,” Walmart said in a statement. The retail giant will also remove items from its website “resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys.”

“We take seriously our obligation to be a responsible seller of firearms and go beyond Federal law by requiring customers to pass a background check before purchasing any firearm,” the company’s statement said.

Walmart added that it does not sell sporting rifles, bump stocks, or high-capacity magazines. Handguns are only sold in the company’s Alaska stores.

Walmart’s change in age restrictions comes two weeks after a gunman killed 17 people with an assault-style rifle at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The shooting has prompted national debates about gun control, and survivors from the school have spent the past weeks pressing lawmakers and the National Rifle Association to take action promoting common-sense gun laws.
Walmart joins other companies that have taken measures against gun violence. National chain Dick’s Sporting Goods, which sold a shotgun to Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz, announced on Wednesday that it will no longer sell assault-style rifles in its stores.
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*First Published: Feb 28, 2018, 8:34 pm CST