Walmart Reverses Policy On Gun Sales—Should They Have Left Well Enough Alone?

Last week the nation’s largest retail chain, Walmart, confirmed that it had reversed its recent decision to remove all guns and ammo from their shelves. The reason for the initial removal originated in a statement as having been done due to heightened concerns of isolated incidences of civil unrest.

The massive retailer has instructed all of its store locations to remove its inventory of firearms and ammo from the sales floor and secure the merchandise in a well-secured backroom area.

According to an email statement to NBC News from Walmart Spokesperson Kory Lundberg, stores were being told that the instructions sent down on October 29th were being sent down out of “an abundance of caution.”

Now, after reevaluating the decision and deciding that “as the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have decided to begin returning these products to the sales floor,” according to Lundberg.

The policy change came just three short days before the nation voted on a new president.

After a year of widespread violence and protests and demonstrations conducted by armed protesters with assault rifles in both Michigan and Minnesota earlier in the year, many businesses with storefronts were worried about what might transpire when election results were announced and made official.

In anticipation of problems, stores across the nation boarded up their windows and took on additional security personnel to be ready for any possibility of potential property damage.

Tom Buiocchi, CEO of the software facilities company, ServiceChannel, stated that the company had processed an estimated 310 work orders from businesses to perform preventative boarding up of location in the two weeks leading up to November.

ServiceChannel saw an estimated $20.4 million in work order invoices from May to July, all related to potential ongoing civil unrest worries.

Will Walmart change its mind once again once the election is officially decided?