I understand why Wal-Mart is not going to sell a gun with an unresolved background check, understand why the individual retailer would.

Wal-Mart does not sell firearms to make a statement. They sell them to make money. When people use a gun in a crime that came from Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart isn't interested in hearing that there was an issue with the background check because they didn't err on the side of caution.

The firearms retailer is a different story. You don't open up a gun shop and deal with all of the federal and state hurdles to doing so if you don't believe that guns are a fundamental right to your customers. It simply doesn't happen. And one of the reasons that there is a three day limit on how long the FBI can nebulously hold your from legally purchasing a firearm is because that they might do so. So if you, as a store owner and someone who believes very strongly in the 2nd amendment, believe that the FBI is holding up approvals for their own reasons then after the three days you sell the gun.

I think it is very interesting that this shooting has turned into a debate on the Confederate flag instead of a gun control debate. I wonder if that's because it's a pistol, or because it happened in a Southern state instead of Connecticut.