Walmart Plans To Pull Some Rifles From Shelves

On Tuesday, megastore Walmart announced that it will stop carrying assault rifles and semi-automatic shotguns. The company intends to phase out its current guns, and will not restock them in the fall. According to Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg, it's a business decision. "Our merchandising decisions are driven largely by customer demand," Lundberg told Forbes. The type of gun being phased out is called a modern sporting rifle, and they are currently sold in less than one-third of Walmart's stores. According to Lundberg, the store has experienced a sales slump — the modern sport rifles are not in high demand.

In June, Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon told CNNMoney that the store should focus on catering to specific demographics, in terms of gun sales. "Our focus in terms of firearms should be hunters and people who shoot sporting clays, and things like that," McMillon said. "So the types of rifles we sell, the types of ammunition we sell, should be curated for those things."

It's been a busy summer for the chain retailer, who made headlines in June when the store decided to stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. In the same month, the megastore announced that they would be raising wages for workers across the board.