Panera asks customers to leave guns at home

Joining Target Corp. and a few other large companies, Sunset Hills-based bakery chain Panera is now asking its customers to leave their guns at home, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

With 1,800 cafes in 40 states, Panera decided to ask all but police officers to refrain from bringing firearms into its stores after months of talks with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, an organization formed after the Sandy Hook school shootings in 2012.

Moms Demand Action has said it convinced operators of several chains, including Starbucks, Chipotle and Jack in the Box, to not bring guns into their stores after gun rights groups began carrying rifles in Target stores in Texas, Alabama and North Carolina in support of “open carry” laws.  

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.