Some people read headlines about America’s terrifying culture of gun violence and see a public health crisis, while other people read those same headlines and see a business opportunity and dollar signs. It seems safe to assume which category the people behind GunTV, a new 24-hour QVC-style home shopping network, fall into. The channel, which the New York Times [3] reports will launch on January 20, uses the promotional tagline, “Live Shopping. Fully Loaded.”
Valerie Castle and Doug Bornstein, the team behind the network and well-known figures in the home-shopping world, call its parent company the “Social Responsibility Network.” A video on the GunTV website states the channel will make “the ease and convenience of purchasing firearms…as simple as consumers calling a toll-free number and placing their order.” Viewers of the network will be able to buy “a vast array of firearms and related consumer goods.”
As the New York Times points out, the GunTV studio is located in Palm Springs, California, about 50 miles from San Bernardino, where a recent mass shooting left 14 dead and 21 injured.