LEAVE YOUR GUNS AT HOME, LEVI SAYS

Levi Strauss & Co. — that sartorial emblem of America, its mythologized West and the gun-toting cowboys who swaggered there — would like you to keep your firearms out of its stores, even in states where it’s legal, the company’s CEO told its shoppers Wednesday.

Chip Bergh expressed concerns over maintaining a safe shopping environment at its hundreds of stores across America in a note published on LinkedIn.

The 163-year-old jean seller is not banning guns from its premises outright because “trying to enforce a ban could potentially undermine the purpose of the ban itself: safety,” Bergh wrote. “It boils down to this: You shouldn’t have to be concerned about your safety while shopping for clothes or trying on a pair of jeans.”

Bergh added that he has thought more about in-store safety than ever because of the violent attacks in Paris; Nice, France; and Orlando, Fla. Those attacks, which occurred over the past year, inflicted mass civilian casualties.

He also cited a recent incident in which a customer’s gun inadvertently fired inside a Levi store in Georgia. The Associated Press