Walmart step begins path to culture change

Gun rights absolutists likely will scoff at Walmart’s decision to end the sale of certain types of ammunition.

Gun rights absolutists likely will scoff at Walmart’s decision to end the sale of certain types of ammunition following yet another mass murder in Texas over the Labor Day weekend.

But the chain’s decision is important even though the types of ammunition at issue are available elsewhere.

The key to diminishing U.S. gun violence is finally to apply some reason to the nation’s anything-goes gun culture, which is a matter beyond the law itself. There are many parallels. Gradual changes in the culture, rather than any particular law, drove down U.S. smoking rates, for example.

Walmart long has been a part of the gun culture. Its decision to stop selling the types of ammunition used in militarystyle semiautomatic assault weapons, while continuing to sell weapons and ammunition used for hunting, and to ask its customers not to carry weapons openly in Walmart stores, itself is a major statement. It emphasizes that the right to bear arms, like every right, comes with limits and responsibilities — including the responsibility to put public safety on an equal footing with the right to gun ownership.

Sensible people naturally look to their elected state and federal legislatures to protect public safety. But changing the culture at the grass-roots is the surest guarantee that elected politicians finally will act in the public interest.

Like the Dick’s sporting goods chain before it, Walmart has recognized its responsibility. Pressure on their competitors to follow suit would further the process of changing the culture from the bottom up, making it politically safe for politicians to protect public safety.