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Mike McPhate reports in The New York Times that two home shopping industry veterans, Valerie Castle and Doug Bornstein, are set to premier GunTV, a new 24-Hour shopping channel for guns, that aims to take the QVC approach of peppy hosts pitching "a vast array of firearms," as well as related items like bullets, holsters and two-way radios. The new cable channel hopes to help satisfy Americans' insatiable appetite for firearms. The channel's forthcoming debut might seem remarkably ill-timed, given recent shootings at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs and at a social services center in San Bernardino, California but gun sales have been rising for years, with nearly 21 million background checks performed in 2014, and they appear on track to a new record this year. The boom has lately been helped by a drumbeat of mass shootings, whose attendant anxiety has only driven more people into the gun store.
The proposed schedule of programming allots an eight-minute segment each hour to safety public service announcements in between proposed segments on topics like women's concealed weapon's apparel, big-game hunting and camping. Buying a Glock on GunTV won't be quite like ordering a pizza. When a firearm is purchased, a distributor will send it to a retailer near the buyer, where it has to be picked up in person and a federal background check performed. "We saw an opportunity in filling a need, not creating one," says Castle. "The vast majority of people who own and use guns in this country, whether it's home protection, recreation or hunting, are responsible .... I don't really know that it's going to put more guns on the streets."
Critics suggest that Gun TV could make the decision to purchase a weapon seem trivial—on the same level as ordering a Snuggie or a vertical egg cooker. "Buying a gun is a serious decision," says Laura Cutilletta, senior staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "If you are going to buy a gun for your home, it's not a decision you should be making at three in the morning because you are watching TV."
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 10 2015, @11:55PM
I was going to reply to his "tool" comment with the question of which day-to-day problem a gun, as a tool, will help you solve: but I guess you mostly answered that already. A good butt will probably help you knock a nail into a soft wood, I guess, and maybe a single barrelled shot gun could be used to core an apple?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Friday December 11 2015, @01:39PM
Well there are some people who are avid hunters like myself, and there it is a tool for the legal harvest of wild game. Also there are places where dangerous wild animals live so carrying a magnum class handgun is just a good idea for personal protection which I do as well. Then again my firearms live happily in the very heavy fireproof safe when not being used for either of those activities.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 11 2015, @04:42PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves