Mayor Gets Wal-Mart To Sign On to Anti-Illegal Guns Push

By RUSSELL BERMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 15, 2008

WASHINGTON — Mayor Bloomberg, having had little success drawing federal lawmakers to his fight against illegal guns, is turning his attention to the nation's largest firearms seller.

The mayor yesterday announced what he characterized as a groundbreaking partnership with Wal-Mart to beef up its standards for gun sales at 1,100 locations nationwide. The 10-point voluntary agreement is aimed at enhancing the chain's ability to keep guns away from criminals and the mentally disabled.

"Wal-Mart clearly shares our goals, and their commitment to public safety really is commendable," Mr. Bloomberg said at the outset of the third annual summit of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition he formed in 2006. The mayor said he hoped the agreement would establish a "Wal-Mart standard" of best practices for gun dealers across the country.

The partnership gives Mr. Bloomberg a key private sector ally in his campaign against illegal firearm sales, which has drawn the fury of gun rights groups and manufacturers. The mayor has struggled to get Congress to sign on to his agenda, and he was stymied last year in an aggressive push to repeal a law that restricts the use of gun tracing data by law enforcement.

Under the pact, Wal-Mart will videotape all gun purchases at its stores and keep the tapes for six months, and it will conduct criminal background checks on all employees selling or handling firearms. The chain will also implement a computerized alert system to flag customers with suspicious purchasing histories. Other aspects of the agreement include enhanced inventory checks and security measures to prevent lost and stolen guns, along with more stringent checks of customer IDs. "This code is an avenue for Wal-Mart to strengthen our standards, and we hope other retailers will follow suit," a senior vice president of Wal-Mart and its chief compliance officer, J.P. Suarez, said. The company, he said, shares "the goal of making sure that guns don't reach the wrong hands."

Wal-Mart has tried without success to open its first store in the five boroughs, but Mr. Suarez told The New York Sun that the partnership with Mr. Bloomberg and his coalition would have no impact on those efforts. "We're doing it because we believe it's the right thing," he said. As for a potential Wal-Mart in New York City, he said: "We continue to evaluate sites."

Ms. Bloomberg suggested Wal-Mart was more than welcome. "Companies that understand that they have an obligation to the people that they sell to and the communities that they exist in are the kind of companies that we want in New York City," he said, "and I think every city should want."