Walmart returns guns, ammo to sales floors

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Walmart said Friday it's returning guns and ammunition to the shelves of its stores, one day after pulling the products over fears of store break-ins and thefts during potential civic unrest.

Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg said the big box store reversed its decision to move the products after determining the threat wasn't as widespread as it initially feared.

"After civil unrest earlier this week resulted in damage to several of our stores, consistent with actions we took over the summer, we asked stores to move firearms and ammunition from the sales floor to a secure location in the back of the store in an abundance of caution," he said in a statement.

"As the current incidents have remained geographically isolated, we have made the decision to begin returning these products to the sales floor today."

A Walmart store was looted this week amid protests in Philadelphia over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr.

Walmart stopped selling handguns in the 1990s and removed modern sporting rifles from inventory and required buyers to be older than 21 in the past five years. The company announced last year it would discontinue sales of .223 caliber ammunition that can be used in assault-style weapons.

A gunman in El Paso, Texas, killed 22 people in a mass shooting inside a Walmart store in 2019, leading to employees to petition the company to stop selling firearms altogether.