Journalist Attempts to Buy Guns at Walmart... Collapsing the Left’s Anti-Gun

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  • KellyinAvon

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    A couple take-aways: the piglet is still full of ****, Wal-Mart's customer service sucks, purchasing a firearm isn't that easy, it's even less easy when customer service sucks, if the (quote-unquote) journalist had gone to an LGS the wrong address on the driver's license would've caused a full-stop.

    [h=1]Journalist Attempts to Buy Guns at Walmart, Ends Up Collapsing the Left’s Anti-Gun Narrative Instead[/h]
    After the devastating shooting that took place in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that left 22 people dead and 24 injured, the left began to do its usual pattern of never letting a crisis go to waste. Instead of taking a moment to mourn the fallen, they immediately launched into the process of making it an agenda item.
    This includes a lot of virtue signaling aimed at Walmart. Leftists from lawmakers and activists, to random twitter users, began demanding Walmart cease selling firearms. All of them presented the idea that it’s incredibly easy to purchase a firearm from Walmart. More so, even, than cold medicine as David Hogg proposed.


    But is it that easy to get a gun from Walmart? Enter Hayley Peterson of Business Insider.
    Peterson wrote that she set out to buy a gun from Walmart to see how easy it would be and found the process to be far more complicated than many have let on:
    I went to Walmart with the intention of buying a gun last week as part of an investigation into the placement, selection, marketing, and security of firearms in Walmart’s stores, and to learn more about the retailer’s processes governing gun sales.
    My journey to bring a gun home from Walmart turned out to be far more complicated than I expected.
    First, she went to Walmart’s website and found out that over 4,000 Walmart locations sell guns, but upon attempting to find out which one sells firearms in-store, she was coming up with vague answers. Furthermore, the only guns being displayed on Walmart’s website were non-lethal airsoft guns.
    She then attempted to reach out to Walmart employees directly, but still had no luck:
    The only guns advertised on Walmart’s website are air guns, which are nonlethal. After about 30 minutes, I gave up on searching the internet and turned to the phone.
    I figured that employees at any one of Walmart’s stores near me would know which locations sold guns.
    I was wrong.
    Over an hour and a half, I placed more than a dozen calls to multiple stores, waited on hold for a combined 40 minutes, and got through to a human only three times. Three Walmart employees told me they didn’t know which stores sold guns in the area.
    Calling customer service gave her no luck as well, as the representative told her they weren’t allowed to discuss item availability of that type for reasons he wouldn’t elaborate on. Finally, she managed to find a store that claimed it did sell them:
    Someone answered the phone at a Walmart Supercenter in Chesterfield, Virginia.
    She transferred me to the sporting-goods department, where a woman on the line confirmed that I could buy a gun there.
    The store was 30 minutes away. I got in my car and plugged the address for the Chesterfield Walmart into my phone.
    Peterson says she walked into the store, past the toy and bike aisles and located the gun counter right behind them. Even then, she encountered a sparse inventory with a lack of selection:
    A selection of about 20 rifles and shotguns was displayed in a locked glass case behind the sporting-goods counter. The guns ranged in price from $159 to $474.
    The counter in front of the guns displayed pocket knives, binoculars, and digital night-vision monoculars inside a locked case.
    The selection of guns was limited compared with nearby gun stores, which offered dozens of different kinds of firearms, including handguns.
    Peterson noted no advertisements for guns in the store. She was warned by signage that she was on camera in this particular area of the store and that upon request to purchase a gun, the manager was called.
    The manager told Peterson that she would have to come back in a couple of days to purchase the firearm, as no licensed firearm seller was scheduled to work that day. She was told later that Walmart employees have to be legally qualified to sell firearms, passing background checks and going through training for it specifically.
    She was able to look at the gun, and noted the very careful way in which the guns were locked up and secured, including zip ties that needed to be cut and replaced after every removal. Also, once purchased, the employee has to walk the gun to your car with you.
    Upon returning a couple of days later, a woman was able to help sell the gun to Peterson. She walked Peterson through the process, had her pay $2 for her background check fee, and began filling out the paperwork. Peterson was stopped almost immediately, however, as her address didn’t match up the one displayed on her driver’s license:
    That was a problem, she said.
    To pass the background check, I would need to bring in a government-issued document with my correct address, such as a bill from a state-owned utility or a car registration. (I have never bought a gun, so I wasn’t aware of this.)
    She apologized, told me the rules were strict around background checks, and asked me to come back another time to finish the purchase.
    At that point, Peterson said she gave up trying to buy a gun from Walmart, and concluded that purchasing a gun from that store is incredibly difficult.
    I doubt that many of the politicians and activists currently virtue signaling over Walmart have ever tried to purchase one from them. What’s more, I’m not sure how stopping the sale of firearms from Walmart would have helped anyone in El Paso, or prevented El Paso from happening. They don’t even sell handguns.
    It seems to me that the “do something” crowd has picked a target in ignorance.

    https://www.redstate.com/brandon_mo...-collapsing-lefts-anti-gun-narrative-instead/
     

    Phase2

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    The upside to the article is that she is at educating the uninformed that the firearm purchase process isn't as easy and unregulated as the media and leftist politicians portray.
     

    MCgrease08

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    I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment.

    We complain (rightly) that the left and journalists don't know jack **** about guns or the process to get them. This lady set out to see for herself to actually see what the process was. Not only did she learn it wasn't as easy as she had assumed, but she actually reported on her experience factually, validating what gun owners and conservatives have been saying all along.

    She could have killed the story, but she went ahead and published an honest account, educating her otherwise clueless audience. Isn't this what we've been asking for?
     

    Cameramonkey

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    Except the rest of the MSM isnt as forthright and honest as she is. They'll let this story die as it fails to follow their narrative.
     

    femurphy77

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    I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment.

    We complain (rightly) that the left and journalists don't know jack **** about guns or the process to get them. This lady set out to see for herself to actually see what the process was. Not only did she learn it wasn't as easy as she had assumed, but she actually reported on her experience factually, validating what gun owners and conservatives have been saying all along.

    She could have killed the story, but she went ahead and published an honest account, educating her otherwise clueless audience. Isn't this what we've been asking for?

    Agreed! I see this as a win but not for gun owners in general, it's a win for those willing to listen and maybe even "learn" from the "other side". So much of the news today is repeated hear say and camel dung that just keeps getting repeated over and over. So I salute this particular instance as a win for both sides although it does help the pro constitution bunch more than the anti constitution bunch so it'll end up buried before long.
     

    churchmouse

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    I have to agree with this in that she did go into it open eyed but not expecting the end results she was experiencing. These people think they can roll a wally, pick up some milk undies and a rifle with the flick of the credit card. That she learned what we all go through and factually reported it is pretty amazing.

    But yes this will get glossed over and then shelved.
     

    avboiler11

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    Business Insider reaches a fraction the audience of WaPo, NYT, WSJ or any Gannett paper.

    Arguably the impact on the public would be MUCH greater if published by any of those.

    In all, ignorance was reduced and the preconceived notions formed in that ignorance shattered - both good outcomes.

    I watched a guy get totally BENT in at Clarksville WallyMart a couple years ago when the gun counter clerk refused to sell to his wife, because it was obvious the wife was purchasing at direction of the husband. Clerk said he could do the 4473, husband said no, clerk said no sale have a nice day.

    I was impressed with the clerk’s demeanor while being berated.
     

    KellyinAvon

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    I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment.

    We complain (rightly) that the left and journalists don't know jack **** about guns or the process to get them. This lady set out to see for herself to actually see what the process was. Not only did she learn it wasn't as easy as she had assumed, but she actually reported on her experience factually, validating what gun owners and conservatives have been saying all along.

    She could have killed the story, but she went ahead and published an honest account, educating her otherwise clueless audience. Isn't this what we've been asking for?

    That's not devil's advocate MC, that's making an excellent point. We have one who was educated on the reality of the lawful purchase of a firearm, and whoever clicks on the story can be educated as well. This is one story we know about. How often does this same story NOT get published?

    Who knows? Maybe there will be follow-up story from a LGS where the staff was polite, professional, and helpful. The customers actually had most of their teeth and didn't smell too bad.

    One at a time. If we educate a journalist that's a force-multiplier.
     

    ATOMonkey

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    She made life hard on herself. If she had taken the time to get her license updated (which she should have done anyway), she could have put "gun store" into her phone, drove 5 minutes, and walked out with a piece of iron the same day.
     

    eldirector

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    I find it funny that she is trying to show how lax the laws are for guns, all the while driving around with an invalid* driver's license.

    *Maybe she just moved, and it is within the 30 days?
     

    KLB

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    She made life hard on herself. If she had taken the time to get her license updated (which she should have done anyway), she could have put "gun store" into her phone, drove 5 minutes, and walked out with a piece of iron the same day.
    She was trying to make a point about Walmart specifically.
     

    Phase2

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    We gun owners/advocates can point to a lot of mistakes and incorrect assumptions on her part. For example, the choice of Walmart was not incidental, but part of her initial agenda.

    That's why it is interesting that this article was published at all. She could have buried it rather than publishing an honest account. I wonder if she will try again after getting her license updated...
     

    femurphy77

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    She was trying to make a point about Walmart specifically.

    That's what's so ironic about the whole thing, Wal Mart was a victim as well in the most recent shooting although not on the same level and here they are trying to shame Wal Mart! Hard to understand the mentality. Kind of in line with the whole "we need more laws" crowd; Have any of the shootings since Newtown involved "illegal" guns? Haven't they all been purchased legally?
     

    JettaKnight

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    TL/DR: Girl tries to buy guns at Walmart & finds out their customer service sucks. Her address on her D/L isn't correct, so she takes a selfie outside the store with no gun.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    We gun owners/advocates can point to a lot of mistakes and incorrect assumptions on her part. For example, the choice of Walmart was not incidental, but part of her initial agenda.

    That's why it is interesting that this article was published at all. She could have buried it rather than publishing an honest account. I wonder if she will try again after getting her license updated...

    The only thing that makes sense to me is she gets paid by the story. Thats the only sensible reason she didnt just drop it like it was hot. She could either bury it and send the time and effort she spent into the round file, or publish it and actually eat that week.
     

    KLB

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    The only thing that makes sense to me is she gets paid by the story. Thats the only sensible reason she didnt just drop it like it was hot. She could either bury it and send the time and effort she spent into the round file, or publish it and actually eat that week.
    Or maybe she has some journalistic integrity. Not everyone in the news business is without it.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    Or maybe she has some journalistic integrity. Not everyone in the news business is without it.

    True, but I'm not sold. She admitted bias going in by saying she expected to show us all how scary easy it is to buy a death machine.
     
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