We all bicker at how K-Mart wants to stop selling ammo and how poor firearm selection and service is at Wal-Mart.
It all comes down to geographic location of these stores.
I live in a suburban, soccer-mom area. K-Mart or Wal-Mart by me carry only a few airguns and paint-ball guns. Drive a little further out in the rural area and you'll find a couple of bolt-actions and shotguns displayed. Travel a little further into the open country and you'll find Mini-14s, Remington 700s, 10/20s etc etc. In this area, you will find more people who use guns for hunting and sport, so you will find Wal-Mart and K-Mart in these areas tend to comply with the firearm demands of its customers.
Travel towards big cities, guns are used more for unlawful use by gangbangers. Unfortunately, but understandably Wal-Mart and K-Marts will shy away from selling firearms and ammo.
Yes, we can blame these stores for being so easily influenced not to carry firearms, but to be fair, take a look at many NRA membership totin' gun shops.
I went into one shop and a Ruger 10/20 which only should go for $150-170, was priced at $250!!. The salesman actually said to me, I'd probably find one cheaper at Wal-Mart!!
Then I always get the guy at the counter shaking his head at saying how laws are so bad and the rising prices of firearms. Bullsh*t! A well-educated consumer knows that these firearms are overpriced.
Maybe...just maybe if these greedy dealers would sell firearms at reasonable prices and stopped being a "yes-man" to every anti-gun politician, they would do a lot better business. These shops mainly survive from people using their indoor ranges rather from gun sales. I know that is the only reason I go to these large gun shops is to use the range. I'm not going to hang around staring at a $2000 Bushmaster, if they dare even sell an AR15.
Selling firearms and ammo at 200% over list doesn't draw anyone to the sport of shooting.
The worst anti-gun organizations are sometimes the FFL dealers themselves.
The only true FFLs that make shooting enjoyable are the small ma & pa shops, some internet companies and a few outdoor/sport stores that carry firearms at reasonable prices.