Walmart joined Dick’s Sporting Goods as the second major retailer to change its firearms policy on Wednesday amid a national debate on guns after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, said Wednesday evening that it would stop selling guns and ammunition to anyone under 21 years of age and remove toys and airsoft rifles from its stores that resemble assault-style weapons.
“Our heritage as a company has always been in serving sportsmen and hunters, and we will continue to do so in a responsible way,” the company said in a statement.
Walmart, which said it started a review of its firearms policy “in light of recent events,” became the second major retailer on Wednesday to raise the age to buy firearms in its stores to 21 from 18. Dick’s Sporting Goods said it was immediately ending sales of all assault-style rifles, which Walmart stopping selling in 2015, and would also no longer sell high-capacity magazines.
Their moves came two weeks after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., when a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle shot up the school.
