Walmart decides to quit selling AR-15, other modern sporting rifles

Walmart said that it is in the process of pulling modern sporting rifles such as the AR-15 from stores this week, instead focusing more on selling other sports and hunting firearms.

The decision is related purely to lack of customer demand, says Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg, not the spate of shootings that have occurred in the past year, including one Wednesday in which two TV journalists were killed during a live interview near Roanoke, Va. Lundberg says the decision was made earlier this year.

"It’s based on what customers are looking for and what they were buying when they come into Walmart," he says, adding that modern sporting rifles, or MSRs, were sold in less than a third of Walmart's stores. "It’s very similar to what we do with other products. If there’s not customer demand there, we’ll phase it out."

Walmart started making the transition on store shelves this week, with plans to stock more weapons such as shotguns instead. Walmart does not sell handguns except through special order through some stores in Alaska. Walmart still sells ammunition for handguns and modern sporting rifles though, Lundberg says.

Modern sporting rifles are semiautomatic weapons that are among the most popular firearms on the market, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Though Walmart says the decision is not political, it comes at a time when public shootings have fueled a national debate about gun control and the sale of firearms.

Follow Hadley Malcolm on Twitter @hadleypdxdc.