Walmart will return whatever modern sporting rifles and accessories it can’t sell by the end of next week to vendors and replace them with rifles and shotguns to meet growing demand from local and scholastic shooting clubs, a company spokesman told Sports Executive Weekly Thursday.

Kory Lundberg confirmed reports that the nation’s largest gun and ammunition dealer will stop selling semi-automatic rifles based on the popular AR-15 platform and other modern sporting rifles after transitioning over to its fall inventory set.

MSRs look like military rifles, such as the M-16, but function like other semi-automatic civilian sporting firearms, firing only one round with each pull of the trigger. Walmart sold them at less than one third of its 5,000 U.S. Walmart locations.

“We’ve been selling through that stock for a few months, but as we transition to our fall set any that have not been sold will be removed and sent back to manufacturers,” said Lundberg. 

Lundberg said Walmart had shifted some of its buying dollars to other types of rifles and shotguns to meet demand being fueled by the growth of shooting clubs at the local, high school and collegiate level. “There is a lot of growth in that area,” he said.

Lundberg could not confirm when Walmart began selling modern sporting rifles.

The decision does not mark the first time Walmart has scaled back it firearms assortment. Nine years ago, the retailer announced plans to phase out firearms sales at
1,000 of its stores. But it insist it plans to
continue selling firearms as long as its customers want them.

Last year,
the company began using an internally developed “enhanced electronic
transaction system” to reduce potential errors in collecting and
processing data during firearms sales including background checks.

Conflicting reports

Walmart's decision on MSRs was somewhat at odds with reports from firearms manufacturers, who continued this week to report strong sales of modern sporting rifles. Smith & Wesson Holding Co. reported Thursday that its shipments of long guns increased 45.5 percent in the fiscal first quarter ended July 31 driven in part by strong demand  for its M&P15 Sport rifle. SWHC President and CEO James Debney was dismissive when asked Thursday about Walmart's decision.