Violence Policy Center Statement on Wal-Mart Decision to Stop Gun Sales: “No Surprise”

Washington, DC--Following today’s announcement by Wal-Mart that it was ending gun sales in approximately one third of its stores, Violence Policy Center (VPC) Executive Director Josh Sugarmann released the following statement:

“Wal-Mart’s decision is no surprise. The dirty little secret in the gun industry is that gun ownership in America is rapidly shrinking. The marketplace has spoken and the losers are America’s gun industry and the gun lobby. While the National Rifle Association claims that “almost half” of American homes have guns, the September 2005 edition of the journal Pediatrics reveals the real number to be less than a third. According to survey data from the National Opinion Research Center, from 1980 to 2004, gun ownership by men dropped by more than 10 percentage points—from 52 percent to 41.3 percent. At the same time, gun ownership by women has remained statistically stagnant at an average of little more than 11 percent.”

The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury.