{"id":74237,"date":"2019-09-06T02:27:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T02:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/joining-walmart-city-market-to-stop-allowing-open-carry-firearms\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:59:33","slug":"joining-walmart-city-market-to-stop-allowing-open-carry-firearms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/joining-walmart-city-market-to-stop-allowing-open-carry-firearms\/","title":{"rendered":"Joining Walmart, City Market to stop allowing open carry firearms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"City
City Market and Walmart announced this week that shoppers would be asked not to openly carry weapons into stores.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Walmart and City Market are asking customers not to openly carry firearms into stores nationwide, a request some residents on either side of the gun debate in Southwest Colorado said they find reasonable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a sensible request,\u201d said Jean Walter, a gun owner and former La Plata County Democratic Party chairwoman. Taking a visible firearm into a grocery store simply scares others, she said.<\/p>\n

Chris Burnett, manager at Rocky Mountain Pawn and Gun, said openly displaying a weapon can be needlessly concerning to other shoppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no need to scare the soccer mom with her two kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gun owners who are interested in carrying their weapon for personal protection may apply for a concealed carry permit, he said. Concealed carry permit-holders go through extensive background checks to ensure they will be responsible gun owners, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose kind of people are extra squeaky clean,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walmart, Walgreens and City Market\u2019s parent company, Kroger, are the latest major retailers to announce they will ask shoppers not to openly carry firearms. Others include Starbucks, Target and Wendy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The retailers\u2019 announcement comes after a shooting last month at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people.<\/p>\n

The retailers\u2019 request could be enforced by law enforcement if someone brought a weapon openly into a store and then refused to leave, said Ray Shupe, a Durango Police Department spokesman.<\/p>\n

A business has the right to refuse service to anyone, and if the person openly carrying a weapon refused to leave the store, the police could issue the shopper a trespassing ticket, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be treated just like any other trespassing call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the person could have the right to file a civil lawsuit against the shop because Colorado state law allows residents to openly carry weapons, he said.<\/p>\n

City Market spokeswoman Kelli McGannon said she couldn\u2019t provide many details about the store\u2019s new policy on firearms.<\/p>\n

She could not say if the chain might display signs announcing the policy or if the company had taken a stance on concealed carry weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to find best practices and work with retail partners,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Walmart has taken a step beyond not allowing residents to open carry, announcing this week that it will stop selling handgun ammunition as well as short-barrel rifle ammunition, such as the .223 caliber and 5.56 caliber used in military-style weapons, after it runs out of its current inventory. That in turn will reduce Walmart\u2019s market share of ammunition from around 20% to a range of about 6% to 9%, according to a memo by the company CEO Doug McMillon. The company also called on Congress to consider an assault rifle ban.<\/p>\n

Durango-area gun shop workers said they expect Walmart\u2019s decision will drive up sales at locally owned stores.<\/p>\n

Burnett with Rocky Mountain Gun and Pawn said he is pleased by Walmart\u2019s announcement because even a piece of Walmart\u2019s sales would be good for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tickled to death; we have a hard enough time competing with the big chain stores,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he had already heard from some gun owners who were upset with Walmart and expected the retailer would see some backlash from shoppers who are supporters of gun rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of turned them off a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As a libertarian, Burnett said he supported a retailer\u2019s right to make changes that make sense to them. But he believes armed citizens improve public safety, particularly if they are able to intervene in a shooting before police can arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only guy that takes out a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Walter said she supports the step Walmart took.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts Walmart on the record as saying we object to the proliferation of weapons that kill kids. \u2026 It\u2019s meaningful in so far as it shows where Walmart stands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she would like to see national lawmakers institute stronger background check requirements and a national extreme risk protection order law, also known as a \u201cred flag\u201d law. Red flag laws allow law enforcement or family members to report someone as a threat and seek a court order to have that person\u2019s weapons seized.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango-area residents react favorably to the announcement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6096,5738,5941,5737,5736,5735,5741,6097],"tags":[2549,21,150,28,29,2846],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-market","category-cortez","category-firearms","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","category-walmart","tag-city-market","tag-cortez","tag-firearms","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-walmart"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92509,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74237\/revisions\/92509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74237"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}