Walmart’s Senior Director for Corporate Communications Kory Lundberg has confirmed rumors that Walmart will no longer be stocking modern sports rifles such as the AR-15, nor semi-automatic shotguns with a magazine capacity of seven or more rounds.

Lundberg states that politics played no role in the chain’s decision to stop selling the rifles and shotguns, and that it was purely a business decision that drove an inventory correction.

Not all Walmart stores carry firearms, and those that do typically tend to sell much higher volumes of entry-level bolt-action rifles, lever-action centerfire rifles, single-shot shotguns,  and pump-action shotguns.

Sales of the more expensive semi-automatic shotguns and centerfire semi-automatic rifles lagged significantly behind.

Walmart has made the decision to sell out their remaining inventory of the discontinued firearms at closeout prices, and we’ve seen claims on the Internet of some lucky Walmart shoppers picking up Bushmaster AR-15s for as low as $250. Lundberg was unable to substantiate those rumors, but did say remaining firearms that are being phased out are being steeply discounted.

In place of the discontinued MSRs and shotguns, Walmart will bring in other models of economical firearms to match the hunting-driven fall product mix.