According to reports, big-box retailer Target has asked that customers in states where it’s legal to carry guns to leave them at home. The retailer also reiterated to consumers that they do not sell guns in their stores.
Target Corp. said Wednesday it would “respectfully” ask customers to not bring guns into its stores, “even in communities where it is permitted by law,” responding to a month-long campaign from a gun-control group.
Texas gun-rights groups forced the retailer’s hand after posting photographs of their members carrying rifles through the aisles of stores near Dallas.
A second group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a gun-control organization funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, launched a campaign to pressure the retailer to prohibit the open carry of guns. Shannon Watts, the group’s leader, led an online and social-media campaign to boycott Target.
The National Rifle Association briefly scolded the Texas gun-rights groups, according to reports, for openly carrying firearms while shopping, calling the practice “not neighborly.” The NRA later recanted and apologized.
In a memo posted on the chain’s Website Wednesday, Target’s interim CEO, John Mulligan, said: “This is a complicated issue, but it boils down to a simple belief: Bringing firearms to Target creates an environment that is at odds with the family-friendly shopping and work.