Michael T Duke is making a killing from the gun boom

While murder and suicide numbers soar, the Wal-Mart CEO watches his supermarket giant capitalise on booming weapons sales

FIRST POSTED APRIL 20, 2009

Michael T. Duke sells more guns than anyone else in America. The sale of guns is among the only 'up-ticks' in the American consumer culture, with monthly figures varying from 42 to 28 per cent. In the past three months, in a wave of murder being linked to the economic crash, 57 people have been shot dead in nine mass-killings, mostly involving families.

Putting this information together inspires a portrait of Duke - he generally prefers plain 'Mike' - as a colossus of capitalism somehow combining the all-American hat-and-boots of John 'Duke' Wayne and one of those fellers with a gut straining against his belt buckle, standing at the cash register with Colt AR-15s and Smith and Wesson specials hanging on display behind him.

Well, not quite. Since February, Duke has been the new president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He is a slender, well-groomed business man in an innocuous single-breasted suit, his hair trimmed tight around his ears; the type who would be entirely at home managing a High Street store. Instead he runs the world's biggest store, which has now taken over from the near-bankrupt General Motors as the world's biggest corporation.

In the first quarter of this year, stocks in Smith and Wesson rose 165 per cent, and Sturm Ruger, 102 per cent

Wal-Mart, started by the avuncular Sam Walton in hokey old Arkansas, is of course known everywhere for being the biggest retailer of just about everything, with the cheapest prices, and worst of taste. What is often overlooked, however, is that Wal-Mart also sells more guns than any other outfit on earth, except, possibly, the Red Army when stoking up a convenient guerrilla war.

There are no signs that Duke has any plans to change that. Guns, like booze, are a recession-proof product. In the first quarter of this year, stocks in Smith and Wesson rose 165 per cent, and Sturm Ruger, 102 per cent.

This is important, because for a couple of months last year even Wal-Mart was watching a falling or level sales curve, and Duke warns that the recession is going to be long and hard. "It's not a 'V' recession, where we're just going to bounce and come back," he says. "There's still a lot of stress in the economy."

His use of the word 'stress' is interesting, because that is just the word favoured by commentators, cops and psychologists fretting over links between mass murder, mass unemployment and massive debt.

A newspaper editorial trotted out the statistics 57 dead, 6 million newly unemployed, 280 million guns in private hands and asked: "Random numbers? No. They all figure in the wave of mass murder that grips this country."

It noted that the beserkers had either committed suicide or been shot by the police, so details of their motives were few. "But nearly all had lost jobs and were struggling to hold onto what

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Charles Laurence You are 100% Stalincrat. Get the hell out of this country. While Wal Mart is far from sin, this is NOT one of them. We have the right to keep and bear arms. Armed people are not dangerous. They are protected. Could you have better spent your energy on discussing the unequal wage differences between corp. salaries and the associates who rely on government sponsored health care because they cannot afford the benefits Wal Mart offers? Oh wait...that's Socialism...you approve of that. Could you have written about the struggles of the Wal Mart workers who have no family life and struggle from check to check and are always kept in fear of losing their jobs? Ooops, wrong again. That's Socialism and you approve of that. Could you have written about how if the word "union" is mentioned inside (or outside) a Wal Mart by an associate they will be fired? Oops again! You'd be writing about freedom of speech...that's in that nasty old Constitution (the same one Rush Limbaugh uses). And please don't think I'm defending unions here. I'm NOT. Could you have written about the oppressed sweatshop workers who live as slaves, have no hope and work 12-15 hours per day for only pennies an hour in unspeakable conditions and are beaten, raped, murdered so that you can have your "savings" from Wal Mart?? Or do you tuck yourself nicely into bed at night on the sheets you saved $2 on and drift off into a nice ignorant sleep? Shame on you.

Posted by Veronica Deevers at 2:51pm on April 21, 2009

I support "Gun Control" legislation. I do not oppose the right to bear arms but I would greatly support any laws that require a stern scrutiny of every person wishing to purchase a firearm. If we require from every Americans that they study, learn & know all the traffic/road signs ... that they pass both a written and road tests BEFORE they are issued a Driver License ... then the same rules should apply to potential gun owners. They would be required to take a gun safety class, firing range pratice & applicable test to instill in their mind the danger & responsibilities of owning a firearm. Cars/trucks don't kill ... but bad drivers do ... the same goes with firearms! And what's the deal with wishing to purchase an armored piercing AK-47 and submachine gun for personal protection?? What's next ... grenades and rocket launchers? Let's put a stop to this nonsense. That's way beyond what our forefathers intented in preserving our individual constitional rights.

Posted by librophile at 6:34pm on April 21, 2009

Dear Veronica Deevers, Have you ever read your constituion??(the U.S.one?) It is solely a matter of interpretation. I mean most Americans I know act as if the Constitution has been handed down by the Divine and Holy.. lets face it they were just a bunch of Politicians that had special interests in mind. the Document seems fine for the age it was produced in, But HOLY WRIT? I think not.My comment in no way is meant to Disparage either yourself or your country. It is just my Opinion, Please Do not take offense> because none is intended.

Posted by sean@oz at 7:05am on April 24, 2009