Walmart announced Wednesday that it will no longer sell assault rifles at its U.S. stores due to a lack of consumer demand.

A Walmart spokesman announced that the world's largest retailer will stop stocking military-style semiautomatic rifles like AR-15s and other modern sporting rifles (MSRs) in just a couple of weeks. Instead, the company will replace the rifles, which are sold in less than one third of its stores, with shotguns and hunting weapons. Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg said the move is not politically-driven, but rather a result of low demand.

Even though "this happens to get more attention because of what the product is, the decision was completely based on what customers are buying and what they want," Lundberg said.

He added that the company has been phasing out AR-15s and MSRs "for a while and within the next week or two, MSRs shouldn't be in any more stores."

Walmart made the announcement on the same day that a Virginia-based reporter and cameraman were fatally shot on live television by a man wielding a handgun. However, the retailer did not mention the shootings in its announcement.

AR-15s have notoriously been used in mass shootings including Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado. As a result, and gun control advocates have called for more restrictions around the sale of these firearms.

Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon hinted that he was considering removing military-style firearms from his stores during a June 23 interview with CNNMoney.

"Our focus in terms of firearms should be hunters and people who shoot sporting clays, and things like that," said McMillon. "So the types of rifles we sell, the types of ammunition we sell, should be curated for those things."

When asked if he would curtail sales of semiautomatic guns, McMillon replied saying, "yes."

"We want to serve people who hunt and fish and we want to have a great sporting goods department," he said.

Within the last 15 years, Walmart has taken steps to outlaw the sales of handguns and high-capacity magazines. It has also scaled back firearm sales in many parts of the country.