Wal-Mart, the largest seller of firearms in the U.S., announced Monday it will toughen rules for gun sales, from storing video of purchases to creating an internal log of which guns they sell that are later used in crimes.
J.P. Suarez, the chief compliance officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., appeared with outspoken gun control advocate Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York to announce the changes at a gathering of Bloomberg's group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Changes to come at about 1,100 Wal-Mart stores selling guns include
_Creating a record and alert system to record when a gun sold at Wal-Mart is later used in a crime. If the purchaser of that gun later tries to buy another gun at Wal-Mart, the system would alert the sales clerk of the prior buy and could refuse to make the sale.
_Retaining the recorded images of gun sales in case law enforcement wants to view them later as part of an investigation.
_Expanding background checks of employees who handle guns and expanding inventory controls.
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Suarez said his company may receive some pressure from gun rights groups, but added, «This is not a signal that we're getting out of firearms.
Bloomberg urged other companies to join Wal-Mart in the initiative called the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership.
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The mayors' gun summit also unveiled a new lobbying effort to close what they call the «gun show loophole» that allows people to purchase guns without background checks at gun shows.
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The group, largely funded by Bloomberg's personal fortune, announced it was spending more than $100,000 (¤63,000) on television ads starting Wednesday featuring all three of the current main presidential candidates voicing their opposition to the gun show loophole.
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The mayors group is trying to gather support in Congress to
_End the gun show loophole.
_Require gun dealers to perform criminal background checks on all gun-handling employees.
_Close a so-called fire-sale loophole that allows gun dealers whose licenses have been revoked by the government to sell off their inventory without background checks.
_Add those placed on the terrorist no-fly list to the list of people prohibited from purchasing a firearm.