You Can Pry My Free Dish Network Shotgun From My Cold, Dead Hands

28 Mar, 2011 by Jenn Q. Public

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Originally posted at NewsReal’s That’s What She Said
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Business has tripled at a Montana Radio Shack offering a free firearm with some Dish Network purchases:

“Protect yourself with Dish Network. Sign up now, get free gun,” the sign reads.

“We have people literally stop in to take pictures of the sign,” Levy said.

Qualifying customers have the choice between a Hi Point 380 pistol or a 20-gauge shotgun.

The deal is only good for new Dish Network customers and they must buy a certain amount of equipment to qualify for the free gun.

After the customer signs a service contract and sets up an install date, they are given a gift certificate for their gun. They can also opt for a $50 gift card from Pizza Hut if they prefer, Strand said. And customers who purchase new Dish Network service that don’t qualify for a firearm are still given the Pizza Hut gift card.

Predictably, anti-gun leftists have this promo in their cross-hairs. A Rutgers Daily Targum editorial calls it “a wildly irresponsible promotion.”  And a CNET writer seems to have developed a strange new respect for family values:

But somehow Dish Network is supposed to be a family-friendly value proposition. And to entice customers with guns seems not quite so family-friendly in an era in which people tend to misuse guns with such unfamily-friendly regularity.

Who knew Playboy TV and Skinemax were part of a “family-friendly” lineup? And as for legal firearms being “unfamily-friendly”:

Tell that to the 10-year-old Louisiana boy who used his mom’s gun to protect his 8-year-old sister from a team of thugs breaking into their home.

Tell that to Kristen Holbert, a Tennessee woman whose instinct to protect her unborn child kicked in immediately when burglars showed up at her door. They didn’t stick around when they saw her point her boyfriend’s 12-gauge at them.

Tell that to Alyssa Gutierrez, a New Mexico girl who armed herself with a loaded rifle and scared off a gang of home intruders the week before she started sixth grade.

In the urban hipster bubble where this CNET writer likely lives, “family values” are about relying on a uniformed member of someone else’s family to rush to your ironically decorated apartment with sirens blaring when criminals show up. I’m betting he’ll be in for a shock the first time he has to wait minutes when seconds count.

(Originally posted at NewsReal Blog)

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