Following two shootings at Walmarts in Mississippi and Texas, USA-based megacorporation Walmart has vowed to reduce ammunition sales for weapons such as handguns and smaller rifles. Walmart will also stop selling handguns in general. 

This is part of a larger plan to dissociate Walmart and guns. Walmart has updated its store policy and now has asked customers who carry such weaponry with them in states with open-carry policies to refrain from entering. This move is not original to Walmart, as retailer giants Costco, Target, CVS, and Walgreens hold similar policies. 

Many Democratic candidates were quick to commend Walmart’s decision, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Gun control remains a hot-button issue in the US as near-weekly reports of shootings echo throughout news outlets. Most Democratic candidates for president remain committed to reducing it through reduction of weaponry available to the public. 

The NRA, the United States’ leading gun-advocacy group, has called Walmart’s response to these tragedies “shameful,” and argues that Walmart is not looking out for the average persons but rather for the “political elites.” The NRA has already spent approximately two million dollars this year on lobbying politicians in Congress. 

Many wonder how this will affect life in the North Country. Like many rural places in America, guns are an important part of life, particularly in the realm of hunting. However, most hunters do not use handguns in pursuit of prey animals, as they are much less effective than a rifle, shotgun, or bow. Potsdam’s Walmart was not selling handguns at the time of this article.