A Rhode Island Wal-Mart store has agreed to move its gun display away from the toy section after protests from local residents. The state legislature even got involved with members proposing a bill to require strict regulation of gun displays in sporting good stores.
Wal-Mart officials denied that the Rhode Island store was any different than the company's other stores but agreed to the changes after meeting with U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. "We're just trying to do what's right with one of our stores," said Norm Lezy, Wal-Mart's vice president for federal and international government relations. Even with Wal-Mart's concession, the bill relating to gun displays is still alive in the Rhode Island legislature. As anti-gun initiatives go, this one appears to be quite popular. "It will fly through the Assembly," Kennedy said. And if Wal-Mart hadn't acquiesced, "it would have been known as the Wal-Mart gun bill."