Semi-automatic rifles are sold out at many Walmart locations, Matt Townsend at Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

"Searches of five kinds of semi-automatic rifles on Wal-Mart’s website showed them to be out of stock at stores in five states, including Pennsylvania, Kansas and Alabama," writes Townsend.

Walmart, he notes, doesn't sell guns online. Shoppers put in their zip code and the website tells them if their local store has a particular weapon in stock.

Meanwhile, Dick's Sporting Goods has suspended sales of rifles at its stores nationwide in light of the horrific shooting in Newtown that took the lives of 26 people, mostly children. But Walmart has decided to continue to sell guns, including rifles.

It did remove the description and picture of the Bushmaster AR-15 — the model used in Newtown — from its website after the shootings, and the model is still available in stores.



Walmart doesn't reveal the number of guns that it sells, but at an October analyst meeting the retailer mentioned that gun revenue increased by 76 percent in the first half of the fiscal year, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

And it's not just Walmart selling out some of its gun models. A Texas gun shop owner told CNBC that the Sandy Hook shootings have "created a national shortage" of firearms.

"All of our suppliers are almost sold out of items across the board," said the shop owner.