Walmart announced Thursday that it is raising the minimum age requirement for customers to purchase firearms to 21 years of age, amid calls for stricter gun laws following a deadly high school shooting.
According to a statement from the company, the decision was reached “in light of recent events” and that the company plans to execute the change “as quickly as possible.” Additionally, Walmart will no longer feature items “resembling assault-style rifles, including nonlethal airsoft guns and toys” on its website.
“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 statement said.
Walmart noted that it stopped selling certain rifles in 2015, including the AR-15, the same style of gun police say was used in the attack in Parkland, Fla. Furthermore, Walmart does not sell items like “bump stocks,” which modify guns to fire bullets more rapidly, or high-capacity magazines, the company said.
Dick’s Sporting Goods announced earlier in the day that it was raising the minimum age requirement to purchase firearms to 21 and announced high-capacity magazines will no longer be sold in their stores.
The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland left 17 people dead earlier this month. The shooting has renewed calls for stricter gun laws.
The 19-year-old shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is believed to have legally purchased the gun used in the attack.
