NEW YORK  — Wal-Mart has announced that it will discontinue the sale of handgun ammunition. It is also asking customers to not openly carrying firearms in stores even where state laws allow it. Law enforcement will be exempt from the request.

The announcement comes just days after a mass shooting claimed seven lives in Odessa, Texas and follows two other back-to-back shootings last month, one of them at a Wal-Mart store.

Wal-Mart will no longer stock ammunition short-barrel and handgun ammunition after it runs out of its current inventory.

It will also discontinue handgun sales in Alaska, marking its complete exit from handguns and allowing it to focus on hunting rifles and related ammunition only.

Last month, a gunman entered a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas and killed 22 people using a style rifle that Wal-Mart doesn’t sell.

Wal-Mart is also removing video game signs and displays that depict violence from stores nationwide.