Café chain Panera Bread has announced a new policy, following other retailers like Starbucks, Chipotle and Target, banning guns from their shops. The brand, which has 1,800 stores currently, made a statement on Monday telling patrons to leave their guns at home.

"Within our company, we strive to create Panera Warmth," CEO Ron Shaich told CNBC. "This warmth means bakery-cafes where customers and associates feel comfortable and welcome. To this end, we ask that guns not be brought into this environment unless carried by an authorized law enforcement officer. Panera respects the rights of gun owners, but asks our customers to help preserve the environment we are working to create for our guests and associates."

Leading up to this policy change, Panera Bread had been conducting several weeks of meetings with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which former mayor Michael Bloomberg has supported with his $50 million Everytown nonprofit.

The group's founder, Shannon Watts, said: "Panera deserves our thanks and our congratulations for taking this important step, and I applaud the company for proactively consulting Moms Demand Action as it developed and implemented its policy."

Watts and her followers have been advocating with many large-scale businesses to change their firearms policy, irking the NRA and open carry activists over the last few months.

The Moms Demand Action most recently created a six-figure advertising campaign against Kroger, the U.S.' largest grocery store chain. Kroger had refused to make a company-wide policy, rather that it would follow the lead of state and local firearms laws.

"Our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping," Kroger representatives said in a recent statement. "We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue, and we trust them to be responsible in our stores."