New York (AFP)

Under pressure after a deadly shooting in one of its banners in Texas last month and facing the multiplication of mass killings in the United States, retail giant Walmart announced Tuesday to end the sale of ammunition fueling semi-automatic weapons. -automatiques.

In a statement, group boss Doug McMillon described the status quo on gun control as "unacceptable" and asked Congress and the White House to take "common sense" measures, including by strengthening the background check of weapons buyers.

The move comes a month after a shootout in a Walmart supermarket in El Paso, Texas, which killed 22 people. Another shooting took place last Saturday in Texas, in the city of Odessa, with a death toll of seven.

"As we have already seen, these tragic events take place, then the spotlight goes out, and we can not let that happen," McMillon wrote.

He said Walmart, the world's largest retailer, would stop selling ammunition for semi-automatic assault rifles using 5.56 ammunition (or its equivalent .223), once current stocks would have passed.

These AR-15 weapons are extremely popular in the United States, where they also equip many hunters, many of whom are equipped in Walmart stores, known for their low prices and known to be places of socialization for a party. of rural America.

The supermarket giant's boss said the group's share of the US ammunition market, which now stands at around 20 percent, is expected to fall from 6 percent to 9 percent.

Walmart has also asked its customers to refrain from walking around its banners with firearms in plain view in those states where it is permitted to wear them visibly.

In addition, the group has announced that it will stop selling handguns after the stocks are sold and stop selling handguns in Alaska, the last state where Walmart was selling them after it ended in the rest of the country. in 1993.

The NRA, the powerful pro-arms lobby, reacted to the group's decision by saying it regrets that Walmart "succumbs to pressure from anti-gun elites".

"Queues at Walmart will soon be replaced by queues at other stores, which more actively support US fundamental freedoms," the NRA has tweeted.

Several Democratic presidential candidates in 2020, on the other hand, supported the new measures while calling for more.

Joe Biden, favorite of the polls, and Beto O'Rourke notably pleaded for a law allowing the verification of the antecedents for all the citizens.

Elizabeth Warren said Walmart "can and must do more."

For his part, US President Donald Trump, NRA's long-time companion, but who had been in favor of "common sense" reforms in early August, had not yet responded.

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The largest private employer in the United States with 1.5 million workers claimed in the United States and one of the country's largest arms sellers, the supermarket group had already taken measures to limit the purchase of firearms before the announcement on Tuesday.

After the carnage at Parkland High School in Florida, which killed 17 people in February 2018, Walmart decided, along with its competitors Dick's Sporting Goods and Kroger, to raise the age of arms purchase to 21 years.

The world's largest retailer also stopped selling assault rifles in 2015.

Walmart is also not the first American group to position itself on the ultra-sensitive debate about the carrying of arms in the United States.

In April, Bank of America decided to stop providing financial support to semi-automatic lethal weapons manufacturers.

Citigroup, for its part, prohibited its customers from selling firearms to under-21s.

Last year, jeans manufacturer Levi's created a $ 1 million fund to support activists and gun associations.

And after the Parkland slaughter, Hertz and Enterprise car rental companies (Alamo, National), Metlife and Chubb insurers, and Symantec, a computer security company, officially ended the benefits to more than 5 million NRA members .

In their wake, the airlines Delta Air Lines and United Airlines had also removed the discounts granted to these same members.

© 2019 AFP