The key to gun control: Walmart?

The gun lobby needn't fear Joe Biden's meeting with the NRA, but it should be nervous about the nation's biggest retailer participating in the VP's gun-control roundtable

Guns for sale at a Walmart in 2000.
(Image credit: Newsmakers/Getty Images)

Vice President Joe Biden and other members of President Obama's gun-safety task force are meeting with the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups on Thursday, one of a series of discussions as the task force prepares its recommendations for Obama after last month's massacre of 20 first graders in Newtown, Conn. On Wednesday, for example, Biden met with gun control advocates and gun-violence victims groups — then freaked out gun control opponents by saying that Obama is considering unilateral action to reduce gun violence. That spasm of angst was probably unnecessary — as Dave Weigel at Slate points out, there's little the president can accomplish by executive order — and the NRA won't budge in its absolutist stance against any new restrictions on gun ownership. Another participant in Thursday's roundtable, though, should make the gun lobby nervous, says Bill Scher at The New Republic: Walmart, one of the nation's biggest firearms retailers.

If Walmart and other major gun sellers partner with the White House, the gun lobby would be divided between manufacturers and retailers, potentially neutralizing the airwaves and preventing the NRA — heavily backed by manufacturers — from positioning itself as the sole voice of gun-owning America. Would Walmart go for it? It's plausible. Unlike edgy gun shows that serve niche markets, Walmart needs to maintain an image with broad appeal, beyond those who dream of assembling a militia in their backyard.... Seeing the danger of an Obama/Walmart partnership, conservatives are pushing the "crony capitalist" charge in hopes of rendering such a liberal-corporate alliance ineffective. [New Republic]

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.