Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Walmart Pulls Violent Game Displays; No Change on Gun Sales
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
August 9, 2019

Share

Walmart is removing from its stores nationwide signs, displays or videos that depict violence following a mass shooting at one of its stores in Texas, though it has not changed its policy on gun sales.
The retailer instructed employees in an internal memo to remove any marketing material, turn off or unplug video game consoles that show violent games โ€” specifically Xbox and PlayStation consoles, and to monitor and turn off any violence depicted on screens in its electronics departments.

โ€œWeโ€™ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week.โ€ โ€” Tara House, Walmart spokeswoman
Employees also were ordered to turn off hunting season videos in the sporting goods department where guns are sold.
Under the heading: โ€œImmediate Action,โ€ employees were instructed to โ€œReview your store for any signing or displays that contain violent images or aggressive behavior. Remove from the salesfloor or turn off these items immediately.โ€
โ€œWeโ€™ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week,โ€ said spokeswoman Tara House in an email to The Associated Press on Friday.
The companyโ€™s policy on sales of video games that depict violence has not changed, nor has its policy on gun sales.
Following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Walmart Inc. banned sales of firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21. It had stopped selling AR-15s and other semi-automatic weapons in 2015, citing weak sales.

No Known Link Between Violent Video Games and Violent Acts

There is no known link between violent video games and violent acts.
Patrick Markey, a psychology professor at Villanova University who focuses on video games, found in his research that men who commit severe acts of violence actually play violent video games less than the average male. About 20% were interested in violent video games, compared with 70% of the general population, he explained in his 2017 book โ€œMoral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong.โ€
The killings in Texas, followed by another in Dayton, Ohio, just hours later that left nine dead, have put the country on edge.
On Thursday, five days after the El Paso shooting, panicked shoppers fled a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri, after a man carrying a rifle and wearing body armor walked around the store before being stopped by an off-duty firefighter.
No shots were fired and the man was arrested after surrendering.
A backfiring motorcycle in New Yorkโ€™s Times Square set off a stampede Tuesday. Video footage showed the throngs rushing out of the busy tourism and entertainment area, some taking cover behind vehicles and in doorways.
The New York Police Department took to social media saying, โ€œThere is no #ActiveShooter in #TimesSquare. Motorcycles backfiring while passing through sounded like gun shots.โ€

El Paso Shooter Charged With Capital Murder

There have been 254 mass shooting in the United States this, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That means there have been more instances of four or more people being shot in individual outbreaks of violence than there have been days in 2019.
The latest shootings have supercharged an already hot political topic this year.
On Friday, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren blasted the company in a tweet.
โ€œCompanies that sell guns have a responsibility to the safety of their communities. @Walmart is one of the largest gun retailers in the world. The weapons they sell are killing their own customers and employees. No profit is worth those lives. Do the right thing_stop selling guns,โ€ Warren tweeted.


Authorities believe Patrick Crusius, 21, wrote a racist, rambling screed that railed against mass immigration before opening fire last weekend at the El Paso Walmart. Crusius lived near Dallas, and El Paso police say he drove more than 10 hours to the largely Latino border city in Texas to carry out the shooting that killed 22 people and wounded about two dozen others. Heโ€™s been charged with capital murder.
Chris Ayres, a Dallas-based attorney for Crusiusโ€™ family, told The Associated Press in an email they never heard Crusius express the kind of racist and anti-immigrant views that he allegedly posted online.

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

UP NEXT

Phone Footage Appears to Contradict Israelโ€™s Account in Troopsโ€™ Killing of 15 Palestinian Medics

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

2 days ago

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

2 days ago

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An โ€˜Extraordinaryโ€™ Day Hike

The steep trail near the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was covered in inches of spongy fallen needles and peppered with ankle-twist...

20 hours ago

20 hours ago

22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An โ€˜Extraordinaryโ€™ Day Hike

2 days ago

Bakersfield to Host Sanders and AOC in โ€˜Fighting Oligarchyโ€™ Event

2 days ago

Jaguar and Land Rover Maker Pauses Shipments to US as It Develops Post-Tariff Plans

2 days ago

China Hit Brakes on TikTok Deal After Trump Announced Wide-Ranging Tariffs

2 days ago

Shohei Ohtani Throws Second Bullpen Since Resuming Mound Ramp Up

A Visalia traffic stop on Friday, April 4, 2025, for tinted windows led to the arrest of a 22-year-old man after police found $30,000 worth of Xanax pills and a pound of marijuana in his vehicle. (Visalia PD)
2 days ago

Visalia Traffic Stop Nets $30K in Xanax, Marijuana

2 days ago

Fresno Joins Global Protest Against Donald Trump and Elon Musk

2 days ago

2 US Border Inspectors Charged With Taking Bribes to Wave in People Without Documents

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend