(image from Per's Decent Blog) |
As I have chronicled on this blog, Walmart had 53 shootings
reported in the media in 2012. That’s
more than one a week, on average. HERE
is a listing of those incidents. Though I didn’t look carefully until
recently, I also found 21 other gun crimes where shots weren’t fired. That’s at least 74 incidents in at least 28
states.
Crimes and shootings included armed robberies, customers
angry at each other, shoplifters (including of assault weapons!), road rage, law
enforcement encounters, drug deals gone wrong, and even suicides. Twice there were accidental shootings, both
times by gun owners with legal conceal carry permits.
I found 8 homicides,
25 attempted
homicides or aggravated assaults with guns, 2 gang-related
incidents, 3 drug-related
events, 18 armed robberies,
11 shoplifting
incidents, 2 accidents,
10 law-enforcement
related incidents, and at least one murder/suicide
(some of these categories overlap).
There were also two plots for mass
murders at Walmarts.
48 incidents were in the parking lots. 24 were inside the stores. 2 were at Walmart gas stations attached to
the parking lots.
In 2005, a movie was released entitled “Walmart: The High
Cost of Low Prices.” You can see on
YouTube, embedded below. For their
abysmal record on shootings and assaults, watch timeframe 1:16:11 - 1:25:06.
At timepoint 1:19, note that Walmart did
their own internal study and found that 80% of assaults happened in their
parking lots. When they posted a roving
guard in the parking lot, incidents dropped to nearly zero. And yet, Walmart squashed the study and did
not change their national policy regarding policing of their parking lots other
than additional security cams. No
surprise, then, that here at Walmart Shootings we found that there is nearly
twice the rate of incidents in the parking lots than inside stores in 2012.
It leaves you wondering.
Why Walmart? What is it about
Walmart stores that attracts gun crimes?
Is it their lax policy toward guns (they allow conceal carry in all
stores, complicit with state gun law, are the number one retailer of guns in
America, and even sell
assault rifles). Other retail
giants, like Target, Kmart, and Costco almost never have gun crimes occur on
their properties, so the issue isn’t just related to number of stores. Or is it something about the clientele that
Walmart sells to? I don’t have an answer
to these questions – seeking the answers is why this blog is here.
In the meantime, as we go into 2013, shop carefully if you
go to your local Walmart. There might be
a Walmart Shooting coming to a store
near you.
Remember:
Walmart.
Save money. Die faster.