Walmart tells staff to remove signs showing violence, including video game ads

[midian182]

WTF?! The siege against video games appears to be continuing. The latest to jump on the bandwagon is Walmart, whose stores are reportedly removing "signing and displays referencing violence," with a particular emphasis on demos and ads promoting violent games.

In the wake of last weekend’s mass shootings, one of which took place at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, politicians including President Trump once again claimed that violent video games are “partly” to blame, despite the numerous studies showing no link between the medium and aggression.

First reported by Vice, Walmart, which experienced another shooting at a Mississippi store a week before the El Paso incident, circulated a memo to staff asking them to review any signing or displays than contain violent images or aggressive behavior.

“Remove from the salesfloor or turn off these items immediately,” reads the letter.

Additionally, the memo asks staff to "turn off or unplug any video game display consoles that show a demo of violent games, specifically PlayStation and Xbox units." It adds that these demo units will be updated next week.

"Cancel any events promoting combat style or third-person shooter games that may be scheduled in Electronics.”

“Verify that no movies depicting violence are playing Electronics."

Journalist Kenneth Shepard posted a copy of the letter on Twitter, which you can see in its entirety below.

Apparently Walmart is telling its employees to take down displays that show violent video games, specifically shooters, as well as movies and hunting videos. pic.twitter.com/2N3t4B86tf

— Kenneth Shepard (@shepardcdr) August 7, 2019

While Walmart is in a hurry to hide any signs of virtual guns, the nation’s largest retailer has confirmed it isn’t going to stop selling the real weapons. Company CEO Doug McMillon wrote in a Facebook post that it would “work to understand the many important issues that arise from El Paso and Southaven, as well as those that have been raised in the broader national discussion around gun violence,” but spokesman Randy Hargrove told USA Today that "there’s been no change in policy" regarding gun sales.

Following the damning comments against video games, the Entertainment Software Association responded by refuting claims of their link to violent behaviour.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81375-walmart-tells-staff-remove-signs-showing-violence-including.html

 

[amstech]

Damn videogames causing all this trouble. Thank god war and shooting others wasn't a thing until violent FPS videogames released 18 seconds ago.

 

[elementalSG]

“While Walmart is in a hurry to hide any signs of virtual guns, the nation’s largest retailer has confirmed it isn’t going to stop selling the real weapons.“

Video games are too violent, but real guns aren’t? Talk about oxymoronic policies...

 

[Stormbreaker]

No constitutional protection for poor video games.

 

[yRaz]

No constitutional protection for poor video games.

I believe videogames are protected under the first amendment

 

[gusticles41]

*facepalm*

We're barking up the wrong tree, here.

But hey, let's waste more time chasing phantom catalysts. After some more mass shootings maybe we'll change focus.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

I'm sure that psychopath probably just walked in casually with his rifle strapped over his shoulder, then saw an advertisement for Call of Duty and then all the sudden went mental and started shooting people. Yeah, that makes sense.

Really? That's just as asinine as the "Gun Free Zone" signs businesses put up. I'm sure all the crazies see that and think "Oh dang, guess I can't kill anyone here today with my gun... better go somewhere else".

This isn't going to fix crap Walmart... it's not your problem to fix anyhow, it is society, families, parents, and friends who need to change from breeding a culture of hate and violence. If they need to remove media access from someone who has mental problems and will be violent then that is their duty to society.

 

[loki1944]

Background checked employees with CCW would be better.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

“While Walmart is in a hurry to hide any signs of virtual guns, the nation’s largest retailer has confirmed it isn’t going to stop selling the real weapons.“

Video games are too violent, but real guns aren’t? Talk about oxymoronic policies...

Actually if you think about it, it does make sense. Games using virtual violence to accomplish a virtual goal provides stimulation for the person playing the game. Therefor the picture of a game with a man firing a gun at a living being portrays violence. Guns don't portray any violence on their own (or even a picture of just a gun), it is just a mechanical device and what the person chooses to do with or how a picture or video shows the usage of the device in violent manners is where the violence comes from. All down to people... people, can be very violent.

 

[elementalSG]

Actually if you think about it, it does make sense. Games using virtual violence to accomplish a virtual goal provides stimulation for the person playing the game. Therefor the picture of a game with a man firing a gun at a living being portrays violence. Guns don't portray any violence on their own (or even a picture of just a gun), it is just a mechanical device and what the person chooses to do with or how a picture or video shows the usage of the device in violent manners is where the violence comes from. All down to people... people, can be very violent.

Of course...and posters with students reading and studying hard suddenly makes any one who passes by have this undying desire to become incredibly studious...and just like anyone who looks at a gun doesn't ever have any thoughts whatsoever on how it will be used when they see one in person.

*face palm*

(yes, I'm being very, very sarcastic)

 

[GreyFoxx]

Muricaaaaaa, F*** Yeah!!

 

[J spot]

This is common sense, it's not about video games. They just had a mass shooting in one of their stores, of course they're going to take down ANY images of violence.

 

[retsxel]

Walmart special-snowflaking. What a shock...

 

[GreyFoxx]

This is common sense, it's not about video games. They just had a mass shooting in one of their stores, of course they're going to take down ANY images of violence.

Soooo them continuing to sell guns is a sign of peace??

 

[Trillionsin]

After all, this is our Great and Most Knowledgeable of Presidents who put the order through.... he's done his own scientific research and collected all his own data to prove this is what needs to be done, the rest is all "fake-news," and cannot be trusted, only his own sources and thoughts are what matter.


....hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

 

[wiyosaya]

Background checked employees with CCW would be better.

This is not necessarily true. Using a gun takes training. Having a CCW does not automatically make anyone a superhero sharpshooter.

Personally, I think employees given cans of pepper spray would be far more effective and significantly less lethal to bystanders when they miss their intended target given that a crowded area is not the best place to be firing a gun - for anyone, even someone who is trained. Some rounds will go through their target and thus present the chance of a secondary impact and injury or death. In either case, if anyone but the shooter gets hurt or killed, a lawsuit will follow.

In point of fact, in a non-related equally stressful situation such as a bear attack, chances of getting out with only minor injuries are almost 100% when using pepper spray. Using a gun, its 50-50 that anyone doing so will even survive. https://www.outsideonline.com/1899301/shoot-or-spray-best-way-stop-charging-bear

In some cases, people with enough courage to stand up against the shooter - unarmed - have effectively taken out shooters - https://thegrio.com/2018/04/22/naked-gunman-kills-four-at-a-waffle-house-in-nashville/

Thankfully, 29 year old James Shaw Jr. decided to take matters into his own hands and stop what could have been a unbridled massacre. The vigilant young man watched the gunman from a corner and when Reinking stopped shooting to look at his gun, he attacked.

“He saw the gunman looking at his rifle. At that point, the shots had stopped. So he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled,” Aaron said.

“He is the hero here, and no doubt he saved many lives by wrestling the gun away and then tossing it over the counter, and prompting the man to leave.”

 

[p51d007]

Damn videogames causing all this trouble. Thank god war and shooting others wasn't a thing until violent FPS videogames released 18 seconds ago.

I don't think it was so much that we didn't have mass shootings etc, but, times have changed.
In the "olden days" (pre computer), kids were raised with manners, respect, honor etc for fear of their
parents taking them out behind the woodshed, and giving their bottoms a good tanning. Now, if you
discipline your child, it's called "abuse". Kids are like small pets. If you don't train them, they will grow
up to be wild animals.
Couple that, with so called violent video games and some people who's brains aren't wired right, don't
have a separation between reality and fantasy, thus, you end up with some older teenagers/young
adults that think it would be "cool" to shoot up something like on a video game.

 

[gusticles41]

I don't think it was so much that we didn't have mass shootings etc, but, times have changed.
In the "olden days" (pre computer), kids were raised with manners, respect, honor etc for fear of their
parents taking them out behind the woodshed, and giving their bottoms a good tanning. Now, if you
discipline your child, it's called "abuse". Kids are like small pets. If you don't train them, they will grow
up to be wild animals.
Couple that, with so called violent video games and some people who's brains aren't wired right, don't
have a separation between reality and fantasy, thus, you end up with some older teenagers/young
adults that think it would be "cool" to shoot up something like on a video game.

Couple all of that with incredibly easy access to Assault weapons and you get 9 people dead in 32 seconds. And 27 injured.

https://time.com/5643405/what-to-know-shooting-dayton-ohio/

 

[wiyosaya]

This isn't going to fix crap Walmart... it's not your problem to fix anyhow, it is society, families, parents, and friends who need to change from breeding a culture of hate and violence. If they need to remove media access from someone who has mental problems and will be violent then that is their duty to society.

People always assume its families, parents, and friends that could stop this. Yes, I agree - if there are signs of it before hand and those same ones inform authorities such as this - https://www.ajc.com/news/national/a...thwarts-mass-shooting/foYMaMioyt5GOpI21GlWhM/

From the reports, this wacko was on an extremist web site. I have no idea whether anyone reported him, so given the nature of the web site, they might have considered it "normal" behavior and, therefore, failed to report him. As I see it, it literally take everyone's awareness to be alter to this kind of thing, but his behavior might have been considered "normal" to those with similarly sick minds.

And what if there are no signs and thus nothing to report?

IMO, the problem goes deeper to society and our economic system and will not be so easy to fix.

 

[wiyosaya]

Couple all of that with incredibly easy access to Assault weapons and you get 9 people dead in 32 seconds. And 27 injured.

https://time.com/5643405/what-to-know-shooting-dayton-ohio/

And I am sure there are people that will groan at this, but according to a report mentioned in an article surrounding Bill Clinton's call to reinstate the assault weapon ban, the number of mass shootings dropped when those weapons were banned, then went back up after the ban expired.

 

[wiyosaya]

you end up with some older teenagers/young
adults that think it would be "cool" to shoot up something like on a video game.

Honestly, I doubt that any shooter would think its cool to shoot something up like a video game.

I bet if you were to look at the psychology of shooters of any age, what it really amounts to is a cry for help. Some, like this one https://www.ajc.com/news/national/a...thwarts-mass-shooting/foYMaMioyt5GOpI21GlWhM/ who was stopped before hand, wanted to commit suicide by cop. If that is not a call for help, I don't know what is.

 

[Polycount]

I'm not even taking a side on the gun control debate, but holy balogney, that bit about "Walmart is in a hurry to remove digital gun sales, but won't stop selling real guns" is simply hilarious to me. Laugh-out-loud funny.

 

[Evernessince]

Of course...and posters with students reading and studying hard suddenly makes any one who passes by have this undying desire to become incredibly studious...and just like anyone who looks at a gun doesn't ever have any thoughts whatsoever on how it will be used when they see one in person.

*face palm*

(yes, I'm being very, very sarcastic)

Yep. Studies show that in fact the average mass shooter spent less time playing video games then your regular joe. Studies were all pretty conclusive that video games do not play much if at all of an impact on whether a person becomes a shooter.

This chart alone says it all.

 

[wiyosaya]

Yep. Studies show that in fact the average mass shooter spent less time playing video games then your regular joe. Studies were all pretty conclusive that video games do not play much if at all of an impact on whether a person becomes a shooter.

This chart alone says it all.

Who cares about facts when you can make up alternative ones to fit your narrative and pretend the real world is backward?

 

[J spot]

Soooo them continuing to sell guns is a sign of peace??

I don't know, did they stop selling video games? Or did they simply temporarily removed any images that are inappropriate considering what happened in one of their stores.

If the mass shooting is such big news that everyone who visit Walmart has the mass shooting in their head, as a wise business owner do you think it would be reasonable to prevent them from potentially seeing something like this

Of course not to that extreme.

 

[CMH]

I don't know if Muricans realize the rest of the world sees the current epidemic of mass shootings and their disproportionate defense of their "right to bear arms"... and just shakes their head.

Kinda the same when you see a badly misbehaving child getting the treat they were crying for in the supermarket. You know the child will just keep misbehaving to get the treat in the future, but there's nothing you can do, and it really doesn't concern you but you still feel sorry for the kid.