US electronics chain offers free guns to TV subscribers
A new promotion by RadioShack electronics chain in the US states of Idaho and Montana is offering free guns to first-time subscribers of satellite TV service Dish Network.
John Marshall, owner of a RadioShack store in Mountain Home, Idaho, said the flagging economy was behind the promotion, which he began advertising this week.
"There's no problem with it here; this isn't New York City," he said about the gun giveaway.
Customers who sign up to Dish Network packaged for the first time are given a coupon for $135 (£82) to buy either a pistol or a shotgun from a local sporting goods store. The promotion has unsurprisingly sparked criticism by gun-control advocates elsewhere in the United States.
The guns-for-subscriptions offer is the brainchild of Steve Strand, owner of a RadioShack store in Montana's Bitterroot Valley.
Mr Strand affirmed that the promotional campaign was a sure-fire strategy to target satellite subscribers in a region where firearms are commonplace. Since the offer was introduced last autumn, Mr Strand said that subscriptions for Dish Network packages have increased threefold.
Surprisingly perhaps, he said that women constitute the majority of his client base.
"All I can tell you is, grandma is packing a gun in Montana," he said.
"I might not even consider such a program if I were in Detroit city but we have a different demographic out here," he added.
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