Get a load of this crap.  *uck Kmart, *uck big chain stores.  I'll still be taking my money to small stores.  



State stores keep selling handguns


The Associated Press


(Published July 6, 2001)
Handgun sales in Alaska are so profitable that while corporate headquarters of three major chains have either banned the sales of handguns or ammunition for them on a national basis, they've given their Alaska stores carte blanche to continue sales.

Kmart is the latest chain to announce it will phase out handgun ammunition sales in its stores nationwide. But sales will continue as usual in Alaska.

Fred Meyer and Wal-Mart will also continue selling both ammunition and handguns in Alaska, but not in the rest of the country.

"It's that last frontier persona," Kmart's sporting goods manager Bryan Staege said. "Alaskans love their handguns."

A week ago, Kmart officials announced the chain would withdraw handgun ammunition from its shelves nationally within the next three months. The decision came after a meeting with Michael Moore, a nationally known filmmaker and gun control advocate, and three victims of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. The group requested during the meeting that Kmart remove ammunition from store shelves.

Nationally, Kmart stores have not sold handguns for some time.

The Fairbanks Kmart store stopped selling handguns several years ago, but got corporate approval to start selling handguns again last year, Staege said. The store now plans to add more varieties of the easy-to-carry guns and will continue to carry accessories, including ammunition, to outfit them, Staege said.

The decision to continue selling in Alaska is a matter of economics, said Kmart store director Dave Deates.

"We're making money in Alaska," he said.

Out of the company's $5 million worth of ammo sales, only $500,000 of it was profitable, he said. And all of it came from Alaska, he said.

Handguns and ammo are sold at all eight Alaska Fred Meyer stores, said Don Bennett, a Fred Meyer manager.
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