A new TV channel will allow shoppers to buy guns 24 hours a day


Home shoppers can buy anything from jewelry to electronics to knives on 24-hour shopping channels such as QVC — and soon, guns will have their own shopping channel, too. GunTV is set to air six hours a day beginning in January 2016 and rise to 24 hours a day by 2017; the channel will hawk "a vast array of firearms," including products like bullets, two-way radios, and women's concealed weapons apparel, The New York Times reports.
"This is something that's definitely going to enrage a lot of people," said Ladd Everitt, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
GunTV will be filmed in a Palm Springs studio about 50 miles from where 14 people were killed when two shooters opened fire on a crowd in San Bernardino with military-style weapons. While Everitt accused GunTV of "trying to profit off of the out-of-control culture of gun violence," the channel's parent company, the Social Responsibility Network, plans to promote gun safety with an eight-minute public service segment once an hour.
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Additionally, guns purchased on GunTV can't be sent straight to your home; they have to be picked up at a local retailer in person, and a federal background check is performed. Even so, the concept and tagline — "Live Shopping. Fully Loaded" — is rather reminiscent of a recent satirical New Yorker cover that depicts customers casually picking out weapons while shopping for their groceries.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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