SCI COMMENTS ON WALMART ACTIVITIES AFFECTING SPORTSMEN AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
This week, the corporate leadership of Walmart decided to discontinue the sale of handgun ammunition and calibers commonly used in modern sporting rifles. They also ended the sale of handguns in their Alaska stores, the only remaining state in which they were sold by the chain.
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Safari Club International (SCI) is disappointed with the Walmart leadership for arbitrarily denying the needs of their customer base. Citizens in rural parts of Alaska, for example, rely on handguns to protect themselves and their families in an area where they face threats from wildlife and emergency response times can be measured in hours due to weather conditions, terrain, and distance.
Many other states suffer from a plague of nuisance and invasive species that are best controlled with modern sporting rifles including coyotes and feral hogs, ammunition for which Walmart will now no longer provide. In many rural areas, Walmart was the only commercial outlet for these supplies.
SCI acknowledges that Walmart’s announcement stated a continued focus on the needs of hunters by continuing to provide hunting rifles, shotguns, and the relevant necessary ammunition, but we are concerned that this decision will limit hunters’ access to other necessary equipment and have an impact on the hunting community’s ability to support conservation efforts.
The funds generated through excise taxes on hunting and shooting equipment (Pittman-Robertson funds) and allocated toward wildlife habitat conservation projects across the U.S. will also be negatively affected by this decision.
Walmart is obviously entitled to run their company as they see fit, but SCI encourages the company’s leadership to seek counsel from SCI and the hunting community before making rash decisions. The unfortunate reality of Walmart’s decision to discontinue the sale of handgun ammunitions and some rifle calibers and to end the sale of handguns in Alaska is that their customers and America’s wildlife will suffer the consequences.
Safari Club International – First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI’s approximately 200 Chapters represent all 50 of the United States as well as 106 other countries. SCI’s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit the home page www.SafariClub.org, or call (520) 620-1220 for more information.
International Headquarters · Washington, DC
www.SafariClub.org
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