Nation’s largest retailer keeping guns, but tones down violent video game displays

As Walmart scrambles to respond to a shooting at a supercenter in El Paso that killed 22 people last weekend, the retailer announced that it would remove video game displays and other signs or videos that show violence.

The move came as Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump and Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, have drawn a link between deadly shootings and video games, despite researchers’ conclusions that there is no measurable connection.

Walmart has also faced pressure from Democratic politicians and supporters of gun control to end or limit its sale of guns. But there has been no change to the retailer’s gun sales policy, said Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Walmart.

One Walmart manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation from the retailer, said in an interview, “It’s kind of funny that we can still sell firearms, but we can’t show pictures of a cartoon character holding a gun.”

Hargrove confirmed that the memo about violent signs, which was shared on social media this week, was a companywide directive. “We’ve taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and it does not reflect a long-term change in our video game assortment,” he said. “We are focused on assisting our associates and their families, as well as supporting the community, as we continue a thoughtful and thorough review of our policies.”