Popular grocery store chain Kroger has announced that they will stop selling guns to anyone under the age of 21.
Kroger owns 43 Fred Meyer grocery stores that sell firearms. Those stores are located in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Previously, the stores discontinued selling assault-style semiautomatic rifles in the Oregon, Washington and Idaho locations.
The largest supermarket chain in the United States, Kroger joins Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods in updating their gun-age policy in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
As has been widely reported, on Valentine’s Day, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and opened fire, killing 17 students and teachers. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, one for each of the people he confessed to murdering.
Shortly after the shooting, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to California’s 10-day waiting period gun law.
Considered to be the second longest in the nation, California’s “cooling off period” was put into place to allow state authorities sufficient time to run background checks as well as give anyone who might be purchasing a firearm with the intent of harming themselves or someone else an opportunity to “cool off.”
Jeff Silvester and Brandon Combs, two California gun owners, have challenged the law, saying that they do not believe it should apply to individuals who have already been through the process of legally owning a gun, according to The Hill.
In addition to the 10-day waiting period challenge, it is also reported that the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge over a California law requiring that a portion of every $19 transfer fee on gun sales go to support “enforcement efforts against illegal firearm purchasers through California’s Armed Prohibited Persons System.”
Sunrise Tactical Supply, the store that sold Cruz the AR-15 he used to carry out the attack, has since gone out of business, but prior to closing their doors, the owners, Michael and Lisa Morrison, defended themselves against those who accused them of being partially responsible.
According to The Daily Mail, their lawyer Douglas Rudman told reporters that his clients sold “a lawful weapon to someone who was mentally ill.”
“Someone who fell through the cracks. Someone who was not held accountable for their actions when they were expelled from school. Someone who was not put into any sort of database and someone who was essentially allowed to go unchecked before walking into this store and purchasing a firearm,” Rudman added.
Cruz reportedly purchased only the gun from the shop and no additional ammunition or modifications.
“It is for that reason that no red flags were raised,” Rudman said. “It seems like Mr. Cruz made a deliberate attempt to not draw suspicion by not buying too many things from one place.”
While filling out necessary paperwork for buying a gun, Cruz reportedly answered “no” to a question that asked about past mental health institutionalization. This was a lie, as he had previously been a facility seeking treatment for mental health issues.
