SEATTLE, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Starbucks' top executive "respectfully" requested gun owners Wednesday to leave their weapons outside the coffee shops to avoid creating tense situations.
In an open letter, Howard Schultz, Starbucks' chairman and chief executive officer, said he didn't want to ban guns inside the company's stores because he didn't want employees to have to confront armed customers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He said the debate about being able to openly carry a weapon had "become increasingly uncivil and, in some cases, even threatening."
"That's why I am writing today with a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas," Schultz said.
Pro-gun activists have staged events at stores that "disingenuously portray Starbucks as a champion of 'open carry,'" Schultz said.
"To be clear, we do not want these events in our stores," Schultz said, adding that anti-gun protesters have "played a role in ratcheting up the rhetoric and friction."
"For these reasons, today we are respectfully requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas -- even in states where 'open carry' is permitted -- unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel," he wrote.
Starbucks has more than 11,000 stores in the United States.
