Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest retailer, has stunned the music industry by banning an upcoming album by Grammy winner Sheryl Crow from its stores because of a song lyric suggesting that the retailer sells guns to children.

Wal-Mart’s decision, which record industry executives estimate could cost Crow a staggering 400,000 album sales, comes two weeks before the album, “Sheryl Crow,” is to be released by A&M; Records on Sept. 24.