Starbucks has asked customers to not bring guns into its coffee shops. 

According to Reuters, the food chain's previous rule was to follow local gun laws at any given Starbucks outpost, but protests for change in the aftermath of several mass shootings this year has Starbucks changing their tune. 

Starbucks Corporation chief executive, Howard Schultz, requested on Tuesday that the coffee chain's customers leave their firearms at home. 

Schultz said the decision comes from an increase in the number of people bringing guns to Starbucks stores nationwide over the last six months and thereby causing distress and confusion for customers and employees alike. 

"Our stores exist to give every customer a safe and comfortable respite from the concerns of daily life," he wrote in a letter addressed to all Starbucks patrons.

An expectation to the chain's new policy are law enforcement officials, who will not be asked to comply with the request.  Still Starbucks employees will still ultimately serve people who come in with guns. 

"I don't want to put our people in a position of having to confront or enforce a policy (when) someone is holding a gun," Schultz said

One of the main goals of the new policy may be an attempt to take Starbucks out of the politics of the national gun debate altogether. 

"I'm not worried we're going to lose customers over this," Schultz said, noting he and others at Starbucks considered the concerns of customers, employees and investors. "I feel like I've made the best decision in the interest of our company."

Starbucks has nearly 7,000 company-operated U.S. stores, according to Reuters.