Starbucks Bans Guns at Coffee Shops

A new Starbucks public awareness campaign aims to discourage customers from bringing personal firearms into its stores.

The campaign surfaced as a result of recent mass shootings and Starbucks' becoming a site for gun rights advocacy meetings. 

Advocates planned to bring their firearms to Starbucks Appreciation Day last month, but employees closed the store to prevent it from happening.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said the rule is not a ban, but instead an opportunity to enhance customer safety policies.

"We do believe that guns should not be part of the Starbucks experience," Schultz told CNN. "We are respectfully requesting that those customers who are carrying a gun, just honor the request and not bring the gun into Starbucks."

But students interviewed by ATVN said that the ban appears to have come out of nowhere - and only calls attention to guns in Starbucks and contributes to hysteria.