Walmart to Stop Open Carry, Selling Handgun Ammunition in Stores.
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Walmart is making big changes in the wake of the deadly shooting at a store in El Paso just a month ago. The nation's largest retailer, announcing that it will stop selling ammunition for handguns and short-barrel rifles. This comes just one month after 22 people were killed at the El Paso Walmart. The company said it will also request that customers no longer openly carry guns into its stores. Joining me now to discuss? Igor Volsky, he's the executive director for Guns Down America. Thanks so much for taking the time this morning. I was in El Paso for this and, having covered a number of these shootings at this point, of course, the question always is, "Will this time be different?" Will change come? It appears the politics of this have not fundamentally changed, no action yet, at least, on the Hill. But when you see a step like this from Walmart, you saw Dick Sporting Goods make a similar step after a past mass shooting. Does it indicate to you that the private sector could end up leading the way on this?</s>IGOR VOLSKY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GUNS DOWN AMERICA: Oh, absolutely, Jim. And the reality is, Congress is deadlocked. So we have to turn to other voices in society with influence, with political influence, to help us build safer communities with fewer guns. And that's why we're thrilled, absolutely thrilled, that Walmart is taking this important action, and we would urge it to go even further because Congress is coming back into session on September 9th. Walmart and other major corporations, throughout America, should be actively lobbying on this issue. They should be using the leverage that they have with lawmakers on the Hill. And I think, frankly, they should reassess their political giving because there's no reason why they should be giving to lawmakers who take money from the NRA, and who make our communities and their businesses and their employees, who put them at risk from gun violence.</s>SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, though. Can the private sector effectively, if not fill the void entirely, but a significant part of the void? I mean, for instance, Walmart's going to stop selling handgun ammunition after they run out of the current supply. There are a lot of other places you can buy handgun ammunition. So is this actually a replacement or a partial replacement for legal action?</s>VOLSKY: Well, I think you need both, right? What corporate action does is, it begins to change the culture. It provides political cover to politicians. But, Jim, you're absolutely right. You've got to fix the foundation in the system. You have to raise the standard for gun ownership in this country, through reforms like gun licensing and registration. We need both to build safer communities.</s>SCIUTTO: From the companies' perspective here, do they pay an economic price for this? Do customers shy away? I mean, it's early, I suppose, to assess that for Walmart. But did Dick's Sporting Goods face an economic price when it made a comparable decision?</s>VOLSKY: Well, Dick's Sporting Goods said that they didn't. In fact, they seem to be doing very well after the decision. I think the same thing will happen with Walmart because, look, ultimately, what millions of Americans recognize and now what businesses are increasingly recognizing, is that when you limit access to firearms, that's when you begin to increase safety. And so I think, in many ways, what corporate America is doing is, they're responding to public opinion, where public opinion is shifting on this issue. And I think that Congress really needs to follow suit here.</s>SCIUTTO: Is it shifting, for real?</s>VOLSKY: Yes.</s>SCIUTTO: Do you notice that? And how do you measure that?</s>VOLSKY: Well, look, Jim. I mean, you saw after Parkland, 40 companies announced that they would stop doing business with the NRA. We saw two huge banks, Bank of America and Citibank, announce they're not going to do business with manufacturers of assault weapons. Now comes Walmart with this decision. You see big movement. And even in the public, in public opinion, you have, you know, over 80 percent of Americans say that they support gun licensing. This is without any big political leader pushing for those kinds of reforms. That is so incredibly significant because Americans understand that because we have more guns than people in this country, we are all at risk. It's not a question of if there will be another shooting, it's a question of when. I think Americans are waking up to this issue.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, it's in the facts, it's in the numbers. You can't deny it, the facts are there. Igor Volsky, thanks so much for taking the time.</s>VOLSKY: Thanks, Jim.</s>HARLOW: All right. So still to come at any minute, we're going to get the next update on the path of Hurricane Dorian. That's at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. We'll bring it to you as we get new video from the Bahamas and the devastation left behind by this storm. We have crews on the ground there, stay with us for that.