Why are more walmart stores selling guns again?

In an effort to fire up slumping sales, Walmart is bringing guns and ammunition back to many of its U.S. stores. Here, a quick guide to the retailing giant's decision: WHAT IS WALMART

DOING? It is "quietly" reintroducing shotguns, hunting rifles, and bullets in about 500 of its nearly 3,600 locations. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts

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HADN'T WALMART STOPPED SELLING FIREARMS? Not entirely. It stopped carrying firearms in all but 1,300 of its U.S. locations in 2006, citing low sales. And it remains the largest seller

of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. Walmart did stop selling handguns in all stores except Alaska outlets in the 1990s. WHY NOW? The move comes "as part of a larger push to restore

'heritage categories' of merchandise such as fishing rods and bolts of sewing fabric that it removed in an attempt to go upscale," says Miguel Bustillo in _The Wall Street

Journal_. That attempt "backfired" and sales at Walmart's U.S. stores have slumped. The chain also says it realized the appeal of guns may have been "broader" than

it thought. A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com HOW ARE GUN-CONTROL ADVOCATES RESPONDING? An anti-gun coalition in New York

City is pushing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reject the retailer's plan to open up stores in the Big Apple. The city needs to "take a hard stand against Walmart's decision and

make it clear that any corporation that looks for new markets to sell guns and fosters a culture of violence is not welcome in New York," says Manhattan Borough President Scott

Stringer, as quoted in _The New York Observer_. SOURCES: _CNNMoney_, The Consumerist, _MarketWatch_, _New York Observer_, _Wall Street Journal_