Wal-Mart has announced it will now film its gun sales in the United States and create a computerized log of purchases. The log will also create a record and alert system that will record when a gun sold at a Wal-Mart is used in a crime. Should the purchaser of that gun later try to buy another gun at Wal-Mart, the system would alert the sales clerk who could then refuse to make another sale.

The recorded images of gun sales will also be made available to law enforcement as part of an investigation.

The company has agreed to a 10-point code with Mayors Against Illegal Guns as part of the Responsible Firearms Retail Partnership program. That organization was founded and is led by New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As part of the 10-point code, Wal-Mart says it will develop a “first-of-its-kind” computerized crime gun trace log that will flag purchases by customers who have previously bought guns later recovered in crimes.

The company will also run background checks on any employee who handles firearms.

According to J.P. Suarez, senior vice president and chief compliance officer of Wal-Mart, the new registration system is based on the retailer’s extensive point of sale network, providing “a way for us to fine-tune the things we’re already doing and further strengthen our standards.” Suarez also says the hope is that “other retailers will join” in the Responsible Firearms Retail Partnership program as well.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) says the partnership's name gives the false impression that federally licensed firearms dealers are somehow irresponsible.

"Today's announcement reflects Mayor Bloomberg's troubling ignorance and misunderstanding of what can -- and cannot -- be gleaned from data of guns recovered by law enforcement and traced from the manufacturer to the first retailer purchaser," said NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) maintain this trace data.

ATF has said repeatedly, "The appearance of [a licensed dealer] or a first unlicensed purchaser of record in association with a crime gun or in association with multiple crime guns in no way suggests that either the federal firearms licensed dealer (FFL) or the first purchaser has committed criminal acts. Rather, such information may provide a starting point for further and more detailed investigation" (Crime Gun Trace Analysis Reports, ATF, 1998).

Likewise, says Keane, the NSSF has never opposed background checks on prospective employees using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Today, that system’s use to screen potential employees is prohibited by law.

While Keane characterizes the Wal-Mart announcement with the Bloomberg coalition as a “publicity stunt” it’s no laughing matter to those who live in areas where Wal-Mart has become the single-source for many products.

Nationwide, it’s not uncommon to hear small-town residents complaining that “Wal-Mart killed our town” – while pushing their shopping carts down the aisles of the retailer they blame for the death of independent businesses across the country.

Today, Wal-Mart only sells rifles and shotguns in its U.S. stores – with the exception of some Alaskan stores that also sell handguns.

Wal-Mart’s Suarez says the tougher standards will come at significant costs to the company, but characterizes the costs as “part of what it takes to be responsible. Everything is not pain-free.”

Retail observers say that is more frequently true for Wal-Mart customers than the retail giant. Costs associated with business changes normally filter down to the retail customer. Should the costs be assigned to the firearms categories, it will undoubtedly result in higher gun and ammunition prices. Higher prices could result in a downturn in sales for that product category.

Maybe I’m being paranoid, but this would seem to be the first step in a measured exit strategy that can be turned to the company’s political advantage while being laid at the feet of consumers who are unwilling to pay the added costs.

But that’s just me.

Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the New York State Association of Firearms Retailers sent out a notice yesterday encouraging all sportsmen, gun owners, and firearms enthusiasts to contact their state assembly members, asking them to vote against a number of anti-gun bills.

They ranged from mandatory childproofing devices to a ban on any firearm with a bore diameter of .50 caliber or larger (and the requirement that owners surrender them to law enforcement) and the apparently now-requisite call for “microstamping” of guns and ammo and a ban on frangible ammunition. Another measure would create new sales and reporting requirements for licensed firearms dealers –and a requirement that all dealers carry a minimum of $1,000,000 liability insurance.

They all passed.