Walmart to profit over new gun control laws, sends representatives to the White House.
Acknowledging that it underestimated the Obama administration's expectations about its involvement in gun control talks, Walmart said Wednesday company representatives would attend a meeting at The White House on Thursday to discuss firearms.
Walmart initially declined to have a representative attend the White House meeting, citing scheduling conflicts in a statement given to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
"Knowing our senior leaders could not be in Washington this week, we spoke in advance with the Vice President’s office to share our perspective. We underestimated the expectation to attend the meeting on Thursday in person, so we are sending an appropriate representative to participate," Walmart spokesman David Tovar said in a statement released late Wednesday morning. When asked for comment by The Huffington Post, a spokesman referred to the press release and didn't respond to further questions.
Walmart, the nation's largest gun retailer, also for the first time acknowledged publicly that it has been engaged in "ongoing conversations" with the White House and Congress after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December.
The White House task force, headed by Vice President Joe Biden, is charged with coming up with new proposals to regulate guns and will also include representatives from the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation in its meetings on Thursday.
Walmart currently sells firearms in more than 1,750, or roughly half, of its U.S. stores, though in recent years the company has seemed to waver on its commitment to selling guns. In 2011, five years after restricting gun sales to only a third of its stores, the retailer reintroduced firearms to many locations, citing customer demand.
Experts told The Huffington Post this week that despite appearances, tighter regulations on guns could benefit Walmart. One key proposal Biden is expected to put forth would force independent gun sellers to go to certified dealers like Walmart to conduct background checks on customers and process their transactions. If passed, such a law could send people who previously traded guns at shows and in their homes to Walmart stores, propelling the company's already skyrocketing gun sales even higher, experts say.
Currently, federal law allows individuals to sell guns to others without performing background checks or keeping records of the sale.
“If we instituted universal background checks, that would cut down the number of kitchen-table dealers and of course benefit places like Walmart,” said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit that lobbies for gun control. Such a policy would also make it harder for criminals to obtain guns, and thus "be part of a solution to a problem that has existed for decades," he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/walmart-gun-control_n_2435232.html
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