Gun Control Group Targets Kroger's Firearms Policy

A gun control advocacy group is targeting Cincinnati-based Kroger with a national advertising campaign. “Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America” wants the nation’s largest supermarket chain to change its firearms policy. No Firearms Allowed signs are almost everywhere these days except at many Kroger stores. “We do not have any signs on our stores that say that.” Jackie Siekmann is Kroger’s spokeswoman for the company’s Columbus region. “Our policy at all of our stores is to follow state and local laws that govern that store,” Siekmann says. The series of newspaper ads each shows two people side-by-side. In one, there’s a shirtless man next to a rifle-toting woman. Another, which ran Thursday in The Columbus Dispatch, shows a man with a rifle next to a skateboarding teenager. The caption asks which is not welcome at Kroger. “Kroger is allowing folks to openly carry loaded weapons into their stores.” Julie Eichorn is a member of the Ohio “Moms” group. “You know you’re going to pick up milk and eggs and you look over and someone’s openly carrying a firearm,” Eichorn says. “How do you know if this isn’t going to be the next tragedy that someone’s seeing on TV?” Kroger’s Siekmann says both sides are passionate about the issue. She says the company takes the safety of customers and staff very seriously. “We don’t want to put our associates in a position of having to confront a customer who is legally carrying a gun,” Siekmann says. Moms Demand Action says it’s gathered more than 100,000 signatures from around the country for its Groceries Not Guns petition. The group wants Kroger executives to change the supermarket’s gun policy.