Walmart stopped selling ammunition at its stores in Massachusetts after a wide-ranging gun law took effect earlier this month but a company spokesperson said bullets will soon return to shelves after an internal review was completed to ensure compliance with the statute.
In a move made as a coalition of Second Amendment activists were close to suspending the law for two years, Gov. Maura Healey used her executive authority to unilaterally put the firearms statute into effect, including new rules around tracking gun and ammunition sales that critics argue are also leaving smaller retailers puzzled.
The spokesperson for Walmart said when the law took effect on Oct. 2, stores stopped selling ammunition “out of an abundance of caution to ensure we were in compliance.”
“Our internal review is complete and we will be returning product to our shelves soon,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald.
The gun law Beacon Hill Democrats approved over the summer requires all licensed firearms dealers to keep a “legible entry” in a physical or electronic record of every firearm or ammunition sale, rental, lease, or transfer of ownership.
Records must be “open at all times to the inspection of the police” and include the complete description of the firearm or ammunition that is transferred, including the make, serial number, and type of firearm if a gun is included in the transaction, according to the law.
The license, permit, or card identification number of the person acquiring the firearm or ammunition along with their sex, address, occupation, and name must also be included in the entry alongside the type of transaction, the text of the law says.
Most retailers outside of large corporations like Walmart are still confused about the ammo and firearm transaction record-keeping requirements outlined in the law, said Jim Wallace, executive director of Gun Owners Action League, the local National Rifle Association affiliate.
He said state agencies have still not issued official guidance on how to properly keep records of firearm transactions and retailers have been left to interpret complicated language on their own.
“Some retailers are using just a notepad. Others have just created their own forms, thinking and hoping that it will comply,” he told the Herald. “So it goes right along with everything else here that there’s zero guidance coming from the state on how to comply.”
A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security did not immediately provide a comment in response to a Herald inquiry.
Lawmakers also delayed by a year and a half language that requires training for law enforcement officers and retailers on the new law.
It is a move that Democrats have said they made after noticing a drafting error in the statute but Wallace contends only makes matters worse for those trying to understand the law.
“They’re still supposed to follow the law and conduct business but nobody knows how,” Wallace said.
Matt Stone/Boston Herald
A sign in Walmart letting customers know that they do not sell ammunition at this store. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
