Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will stop stocking handguns beginning Feb. 1, company officials said.
A spokesman for the nation's largest retailer said the decision was unrelated to a lawsuit contending Wal-Mart employees were negligent in selling a gun to a mentally disturbed man accused of using the weapon to kill his parents."We regularly discontinue some merchandise items," Wal-Mart spokesman Don Shinkle said Tuesday.
Although handguns will not be stocked, customers can select handguns from vendor catalogues at Wal-Mart stores, Shinkle said. "After we have satisfied all legal requirements, we will order the items for customers," he said.
Wal-Mart will continue to stock rifles and shotguns, Shinkle said.
"Some of our customers want to purchase handguns from us. We also recognize that there is another segment of customers who are uncomfortable in stores that sell handguns on the premises," he said.
"We think this new policy is a good compromise that allows us to serve both customer bases and meets the wishes of those who wish to buy handguns and those who do not."
Shinkle said the decision to remove handguns from Wal-Mart's 1,994 retail stores was not related to any specific incident.
Family members of a slain Texas couple are suing Wal-Mart, contending store employees were negligent last summer when they sold a .38-caliber handgun to a man who acknowledged he had been treated for mental problems.
Authorities say Mike Alford used the gun to kill his parents, Claude Brantley Alford Jr., 63, and Mary Lynn Alford, 60, at the couple's home in Alvin, Texas, on Sept. 18. Alford hanged himself in a Brazoria County, Texas, jail cell after his arrest.
The suit contends that Wal-Mart employees sold Mike Alford the gun even though he said on a federal reporting form that he had received treatment for mental problems.