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A Radio Shack store in Hamilton, Montana has come up with a novel way to pitch satellite dishes to local residents — include a free gun with every purchase.
Actually, it’s not a promotion sanctioned by Radio Shack, and DISH Network has nothing to say about the promotion either. It was the idea of store owner Steve Strand, who runs S&S Electronics, authorized to do business under the Radio Shack brand.
Strand says new DISH customers get their choice of either a Hi-Point 380c-p pistol or a Baikal MP-18 20 GA shotgun. If guns are not your thing, Strand will give you a $50 gift card for the local Pizza Hut instead.
Strand’s store serves Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley — regions that are served by Bresnan Cable, now owned by Cablevision. Stories about Bresnan on Stop the Cap! always elicit plenty of response… about how darn lousy the service is. So satellite television, especially outside of Bresnan’s service area, is the only real option for many residents.
Giving away a gun with every purchase may raise eyebrows among many, but for most Montanans, it’s no big deal. And when you call, S&S tells visitors to their promotional website there is never a need to press “1” for English. “We are American and we speak English,” boasts the site.
[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CNN Guns in Country 3-30-11.flv[/flv]
CNN interviewed store owner Bill Strand about his unique promotion — a free gun with every satellite TV purchase. (3 minutes)
Gun shop PBTC: “Well I think in urban areas the perspective is, the only people who have guns are bad people. You never hear about a good citizen armed with a gun who’s stopped a crime; you only hear about the criminal who’s shot someone.” Give that man a cookie. I’m an expat from the libertarian state SD, stuck for years, now, in the bizarre world of Chicago. It’s true. Urban folk seem conditioned by a couple things, at least. First, there’s television programming and hip hop, whose mythology of guns is the sole source of youthful “knowledge” about them.… Read more »
This urban yokel isn’t unnerved. My assumption is that most people in Montana that own guns use them as a pest-control tool or for sport. The rest are criminals and/or candidates for Darwin Awards. Maybe one day if I move to Montana, I’ll need a gun (there are a lot of dangerous cans and bottles sitting on fences) to enhance my “lifestyle.” In that case, I’ll probably seek proper training, since I don’t have an Uncle Earl. Much is made of the guns in the CNN piece. Googling around, they appear to retail for around $100. One is a low-end… Read more »