(WAND) – Walgreens has joined other major chains in asking customers to stop openly carrying guns in stores.
A statement from America’s second-largest pharmacy chain said only law enforcement will be exempt from the new rule. Walgreens joins Walmart, which recently announced it is no longer selling ammunition for high-capacity magazines and military style weapons and also asked customers to not openly carry at its locations. Kroger made the same request in the last week.
These changes from retailers followed nationwide gun violence, including a mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas Walmart on Aug. 3, which led to 22 deaths. A shooting on the early morning of Aug. 4 in Dayton, Ohio caused 9 deaths.
An Aug. 31 shooting in the Texas communities of Midland and Odessa led to seven deaths and over two dozen injuries. Texas State Trooper Chuck Pryor, a Litchfield High School graduate, was one of the people wounded.
Walgreens has 9,560 locations across America, including multiple stores in Decatur and other areas of central Illinois.
