Kroger joins call for gun reform

Follows Walmart, asks customers not to display their firearms in stores

Kroger followed Walmart in asking customers not to display their firearms in stores in “open carry” states, becoming the latest big chain to reshape its business around gun reform amid a spate of mass shootings.

The nation’s two biggest grocers also are pushing for tougher background checks, bowing to public pressure that has been building since deadly shootings at Walmart stores in El Paso, Texas, and Southaven, Mississippi.

“Kroger is respectfully asking that customers no longer openly carry firearms into our stores, other than authorized law enforcement officers,” Jessica Adelman, group vice president of corporate affairs, said in a statement Tuesday to CNBC. “We are also joining those encouraging our elected leaders to pass laws that will strengthen background checks and remove weapons from those who have been found to pose a risk for violence.

But the Bentonville, Arkansasbased retailer went further, saying it would stop selling ammunition for military-style weapons and complete its exit from the handgun business.

The company had been under pressure from gun-control advocacy groups, politicians and its own employees since the two store shootings. Roughly 40 white-collar workers in California walked off the job to protest Walmart’s gun policies last month, and e-commerce workers in Portland, Oregon, and in Brooklyn urged the company to stop selling firearms and organized a Change.org petition, which has since garnered more than 150,000 signatures.