-Caveat Lector- Wal-Mart says no to gun ban http://www.thejournalnews.com/HomePage/041001/10guns/ BLAIR CRADDOCK THE JOURNAL NEWS Original publication: April 10, 2001 RAMAPO, N.Y. - The Wal-Mart on Route 59 will not stop selling guns to 18-year-olds, despite requests from town and school officials, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. "We are going to continue to sell the guns," said Jessica Moser, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart. "It all comes down to customer demand." Wal-Mart's decision to keep selling guns at that location is a rebuff to local officials, who met with the manager of the Route 59 store last month after police removed a gun purchased at Wal-Mart from the house of a Suffern High School student who had sent a threatening e-mail message. They asked the manager to raise the age of customers to whom Wal-Mart will sell rifles. The store is less than four miles from the high school. The gun, an M-14 rifle, was purchased at Wal-Mart by the student's older brother, according to the police report of the incident. The high school's assistant principal, Glenn Weeks, contacted police March 14 about a disturbing e-mail that the student had sent. Police went to the student's home after learning there was a gun in the house. The student's mother told Ramapo detectives that the gun belonged to her older son, a Suffern High School senior. Detectives told the mother and older brother that they were concerned about the gun being in the house, where the younger brother might have access to it. The older brother agreed to turn the gun over to police for safekeeping, according to the police report. The younger son was suspended from school for five days and was evaluated by a doctor, who determined that it was safe for him to continue attending school, the police report said. Ramapo police, town officials, school officials and Mayor John Layne of Airmont all met March 16 with Michael Travis, the manager of the Wal-Mart on Route 59, where the older brother bought the rifle. "On behalf of the Ramapo Central School Community, the Ramapo Police Department, and the Town of Ramapo Administration, it is requested that you stop selling firearms and ammunition in your Suffern, New York, location to school-age youths," wrote Patrick Faherty, assistant principal of Suffern High School, in a letter to Travis on March 22, six days after the meeting. Local officials emphasized yesterday that they aren't anti-gun, but just want Wal-Mart to stop selling guns to 18-year-old high school students because of concerns about school violence. "We don't want to deny anybody their right to have a gun," Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence said. "But we want to make sure at a minimum that guns are not going into the hands of young children." Wal-Mart does not sell guns to anyone under the legal age, Moser said yesterday. The minimum age to buy a rifle in New York is 18. Wal-Mart does not sell handguns, which cannot legally be sold in New York to buyers younger than 21. Moser said Wal-Mart's staff has authority to refuse sales to people who seem disturbed. She acknowledged the store could adopt a policy of refusing to sell rifles to people younger than 21 if managers chose to do that. But the store will not stop selling to 18- and 19-year-olds, she said. "Just given that you have a 19-year-old in there purchasing a firearm is not a reason not to sell it to them," she said. Moser said Wal-Mart would keep selling guns in the Route 59 store because "there is a demand for guns there; it's very obvious by our sales." Philip Tisi, who is the town supervisor's assistant and who teaches at Suffern High School, said he found Moser's reasoning "disconcerting." He said Wal-Mart recently stopped selling guns in one of its stores in Tampa, Fla., after people in the community raised concerns because the store was so close to a school. Moser confirmed that yesterday, but said the Tampa situation was "unique" because the school actually shared a driveway with the Wal-Mart, which is not the case at the Route 59 store. Tisi, St. Lawrence and Layne said they would prefer if Wal-Mart would voluntarily change its policy. But if the store will not do that, the officials said, they will ask town and village attorneys to look into whether it would be possible to draft local ordinances barring rifle sales to 18-year-olds. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
