The Windham Wal-Mart, along with half the other Wal-Marts in Maine, stopped selling firearms late last month.

A corporate representative cited declining gun sales as the reason for the move.

“The decision to remove firearms was based on diminished customer demand for firearms in impacted local communities,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jami Arms.

Wal-Mart announced that select stores would begin phasing out firearms in March of last year. The stores sold rifles, shotguns and ammunition. They’ll continue to sell ammunition.

A local anti-gun lobbyist isn’t too convinced Wal-Mart’s decision will have much impact on gun-related crime in Maine.

“Maine has an abundance of licensed dealers, you won’t have trouble buying a gun,” said Cathie Whittenburg, executive director of the gun control group Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence.

Gun sellers require special training, according to Whittenburg, such as spotting “straw purchases,” where felons who can’t legally own guns have someone else buy one for them. She also said Wal-Mart has a high employee turnover rate and cannot be relied on to detect dangerous buyers.

Whittenburg said the removal of gun sales was a financial decision by Wal-Mart. Elsewhere in Maine, Wal-Mart stopped selling guns at its stores in Houlton, Rockland, Scarborough, Skowhegan and Biddeford, according to a survey by The Associated Press. Other locations that stopped selling guns, according to AP, were Calais, Ellsworth, Falmouth, Oxford and Sanford. The Mexico store plans to stop selling guns once its existing inventory is sold.

Licensed firearm dealer Bill Darling, owner of Gulf of Maine Gunsmithing in Raymond, said the poor economy lowered his sales in 2006, but said he thought financial and political factors contributed to Wal-Mart’s decision.

Darling said he believes presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton used her influence over the company as a major stock investor to push the gun sales out of some of the chain stores. She also served on the corporation’s board of directors from 1986 to 1992, he said.