Video of Heavily Armed Starbucks Customer Thanking Staff Before Policy Change

Video of Howard Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, explaining the company’s new policy on guns.

As my colleague Stephanie Strom reports, Starbucks announced a change in policy regarding guns, in a blog post and a video statement from Howard Schultz, the chief executive, in which he made “a respectful request that customers no longer bring firearms into our stores or outdoor seating areas.”

While most Starbucks stores are in states that allow people to openly carry guns, and the company has tried to remain neutral in the debate over gun control, the coffee shops have recently gained a lot of unwanted attention from armed proponents of “open carry” policies who visited the stores to thank employees for not turning them away. In one such demonstration, a Texas pastor named Terry Holcomb visited a Starbucks in Huntsville last month carrying a loaded AR-15 Bushmaster rifle while his son recorded video on his phone.

Video of an armed man visiting a Starbucks in Huntsville, Tx. last month carrying a loaded rifle.