Citing civil unrest in some areas across the country, Walmart has removed guns and ammunition from public display in its stores, the Associated Press reports.
Walmart sells guns and ammunition in about half of its 4,700 stores in the United States. The items will remain on sale in the stores that carried them before, but they will not be in a visible display on the store floor.
“We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers,” Walmart said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday.
After being petitioned to stop selling weapons in their stores following a spat of mass shootings, Walmart significantly cut back on the types of firearms, ammunition and gun accessories it sold. It stopped selling handguns in Alaska, the only state where it sold them, and it eliminated sales of handgun and short-barrel rifle ammunition.
The discount chain faced backlash from gun-use advocates after it barred customers from openly carrying guns in its stores.