Walmart is the latest company to raise the age requirement to buy a gun at their stores to 21.
The decision was made on the same day outdoor and sporting goods retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods announced a similar move, and about two weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“In light of recent events, we’ve taken an opportunity to review our policy on firearm sales. Going forward, we are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age. We will update our processes as quickly as possible to implement this change,” Walmart media relations told ThinkProgress in an emailed statement.
“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 added.
Walmart had previously stopped selling modern sporting rifles — including the AR-15 — in 2015, and does not sell handguns in any of its stores except the ones in Alaska, “where we feel we should continue to offer them to our customers,” the statement read. The retail giant also does not sell bump stocks, high-capacity magazines, and “similar accessories.”
The company said it will also remove items resembling “assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys” from its website, the statement read.
After initially suspending sales of assault-style guns at its stores in 2012 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, Dick’s resumed the practice at its subsidiary brand Field & Stream. In an interview with the New York Times this week, Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack said the removal of the assault-style weapons from its stores will be permanent this time.