By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Oct 24, 2001

PLEASANTON — More than three years after Pleasanton voters approved a law forcing gun dealers to get permits, police suspended the license of a Wal-Mart after investigators discovered its management broke local, state and federal rules, officials said.

In an investigation that began Sept. 12, inspectors with the state Department of Justice found the national discounter's Pleasanton, store violated gun sales rules 28 times out of 117 transactions, officials said. Specifically, said Attorney General spokeswoman Hallye Jordan, Wal-Mart allowed gun buyers to claim firearms before background checks were completed and did not do background checks on nearly a dozen employees allowed to sell guns. Store management also filed incomplete or unsigned paperwork and did not post proper signs, she said.

"Some of them were very, very significant," Jordan said, adding that an ordinary inspection might turn up a handful of violations out of 100 transactions.

State officials left punishment up to the city, which issued its first violation under the city ordinance to the chain.

Wal-Mart's city permit allowing the sale of firearms was revoked for 90 days after Pleasanton police Capt. Dave Radford determined at a hearing the store did not have proper insurance, officials said. But Radford suspended all but 30 days of the sanction if Wal-Mart officials tried to correct the problem and is not cited again for a year, he said.

"They've really bent over backward (to comply)," Radford said Tuesday.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jessica Moser said the store is under new management and is working to change training policies and correct problems.

"This is a situation where we broke our own procedures," Moser said in a telephone interview from the company's Arkansas headquarters. "There is absolutely no excuse for this. We certainly want to take immediate action to get this resolved and we have."

Deputy City Attorney Renee Perko said Wal-Mart is the city's only business required to register as a gun seller.

Jordan said the same Wal-Mart logged seven violations in a 1996 inspection, three in 1997. She did not know if other California Wal-Marts have had similar problems.

The suspension is scheduled to end Nov. 13.