On August 3, 2019, 22 people were killed and 24 more were injured by a white supremacist in an El Paso Walmart. On Tuesday, September 3, 2019 — a month later — Walmart announced that it would stop selling ammunition for handguns and assault-style weapons and would politely ask customers to not open carry in stores.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is some genuinely good news in a news cycle that otherwise seems to get bleaker by the day. But Walmart's had its chance to take a bold stance in the gun control debate. It had its chance when 22 of its patrons were gunned down in the name of a violent and bigoted ideology. It had its chance a mere four days before that when two other people were killed at one of their Mississippi locations. It had its chance when it opted instead to ban violent video game displays in lieu of taking any meaningful action.

Walmart's CEO, Doug McMillan, stated Tuesday that he was in favor of "common sense" gun control and widening background checks. But the last time meaningful gun control was up for a vote in the Senate, back in 2013, 37 of the 46 senators who voted against the bill had or have since received donations from a Walmart-affiliated PAC. To be fair, McMillan was not CEO of Walmart as a whole at the time, but he was president and CEO of Walmart International. And to this day, a majority of Walmart-affiliated political contributions go towards Republican politicians, most of whom are adamantly anti-gun control.

Walmart experienced a sizable uptick in positive opinion when it cut official ties with the NRA back in 2018 and it's been met with backlash since their aforementioned move to take down video game displays plays into the hands of NRA officials and Republican politicians who would love to blame simulated violence for our mass shooting epidemic rather than do anything to actually stop it. Tuesday's announcement was, in that sense, purely a move to save face and avoid any further condemnation.

So, is this a good thing? Absolutely. And I am tremendously grateful for the groups like the Walmart Must Act coalition and the Walmart employees that put their jobs on the line to call for this sort of action. But Walmart isn't suddenly an advocate for meaningful gun reform. They've missed their window to take that position. However, there is a lot to be said for the fact that a for-profit corporation has decided its in its best interest to lessen their involvement in the firearms market. If nothing else, that's a hallmark of an encouraging cultural shift.

In short, let's be proud that our society has created enough pressure to force a major corporation to do something about gun violence. But let's not for a second fool ourselves into believing that Walmart is out for anything but itself.