RadioShack is a place where you can satisfy many of your electronic needs, whether they be for cell phones, navigation systems, cameras, satellite television or, more recently, shotguns.
That is not a typo—shotguns are being offered at select RadioShacks as a promotion.
It began at a Montana RadioShack, where it was advertised that when a customer bought a satellite television package that person would get a free gun—but it does not stop with just one RadioShack. A store in Idaho soon took the same idea after seeing the Montana store thrive due to the promotion.
The store that started the promotion is in Hamilton, Mont., and owned by Steve Strand. John Marshall is the owner of the Mountain Home, Idaho store that implemented the deal after seeing the success of the Montana store.
Steve Strand has been offering a gift card for a $125 pistol or $115 shotgun and a free background check to customers who sign up for the two-year Dish Network packages since October. If you do not want the gun, you can opt to receive the $50 pizza gift certificate.
There is a disclaimer that goes along with the “free” gun. The gun must be redeemed at a licensed firearms vendor and of course, one must go through the proper gun licensure process in order to own a gun.
It may not be as easy to get the gun as the advertisements portray, but nonetheless, these RadioShack stores are giving guns away as promotions. By doing so they are promoting violent weapons and making them easier to obtain.
It was not until the end of March that the RadioShack Corporation asked the Montana store’s owner to end the promotion, as it does not follow the corporation’s marketing practices, but the owner has no plans of discontinuing the promotion. Strand is seeking legal representation.
Strand had planned on expanding the deal to DIRECTV packages, but DIRECTV chose to pull out of the gun promotion.
The biggest argument the stores have for promoting this kind of deal is to increase the stores’ business and profits, and apparently it worked for the Montana location well enough for the Idaho store to stand up and take notice. The Hamilton store has tripled its business since beginning the promotion in October.
Many businesses are suffering financially due to the rough economy. But that should not be an excuse to start giving away guns. As far as marketing goes, the stores in Montana and Idaho are selling to their target audiences, but overall this kind of promotion is not good for the RadioShack Corporation. Should we really be trading in people’s general safety for profit?
The number of accidental and non-accidental shootings is striking. School shootings alone are at a depressingly high number. And these stores want to give people even more access to guns.
The issue here is not about the constitutional right to bear arms or whether guns are good or bad; the issue is that these RadioShack stores are promoting dangerous weapons, which is something that cannot be argued. Whether you believe it is the gun that does the killing or the person, guns are dangerous and that cannot
be debated.
The RadioShack Corporation needs to do whatever they can to shut down this promotion. While Strand may be an independent dealer, he is still associating himself with the RadioShack name.
As a major business, RadioShack has a responsibility to promote beneficial products, and promoting guns is not the way to go. Guns are dangerous and violent and RadioShack should not allow its company to be associated with such violence. The sooner this whole gun promotion deal ends, the better it will be for everyone involved. ?