UPDATE: On Friday (October 30), Walmart announced they were returning guns and ammunition to store shelves.

"After civil unrest earlier this week resulted in damage to several of our stores, consistent with actions we took over the summer, we asked stores to move firearms and ammunition from the sales floor to a secure location in the back of the store in an abundance of caution," a Walmart spokesperson said. "As the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have made the decision to begin returning these products to the sales floor today."

ORIGINAL STORY:

Walmart is pulling all guns and ammunition from its store shelves over concerns about civil unrest following the presidential election next Tuesday (November 3). The company said they want to prevent the guns from being stolen if riots and looting break out.

“We have seen some isolated civil unrest, and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers,” Kory Lundberg, a spokesman for Walmart, said in a statement.

Walmart, which sells firearms in about half of its 4,700 stores, said that customers will still be able to purchase guns and ammunition upon request.

This is not the first time that Walmart has pulled weapons from its shelves. They did so in the wake of protests around the death of George Floyd and after other high profile mass shootings. The retailer stopped selling handguns in all states but Alaska in the early 1990s and modern sporting rifles in 2015. In 2018, Walmart announced it was raising the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21.

Walmart did not say when they would put firearms and ammunition back on the shelves.

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