Whether it’s because of the Sandy Brook Elementary School shooting or something else, looks like Ted Nugent’s Gun Country won’t be back on Discovery. The special, which aired in October 2012, was a one-time deal and will not return for new episodes, according to a Discovery spokesperson.
Hmmm … a bit of mixed messages there, because that’s not what Nugent said in a MediaMatters story in October. “They want to do it as a regular feature,” he said. “We expect that there will be at least a dozen shows a year.”
The show followed Nugent, a board member of the National Rife Association, as he lived life, hunting and shooting for sport, food and fun.
“Our new show simply celebrates and promotes the self-evident truth that 99.99 percent of American gun-owning families use our guns on a regular basis for all the right reasons,” Nugent wrote in his “Washington Times” column in October. “The same 99.99 percent of Americans with guns will never use our guns in a crime or for any negative misuse whatsoever.”
Since the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, many networks are taking a hard look at their programming and making changes:
- Syfy pulled an episode of Haven that featured school violence; the show will air in January.
- TLC rescheduled their new reality special Best Funeral Ever for an early 2013 airdate.
- Fox pulled episodes of Family Guy and American Dad from its Sun., Dec. 16 lineup and scheduled them for a later date.
- American Guns and Sons of Guns reruns are not airing on Discovery, and American Guns will not return for new episodes.
On one hand, I think it’s a good idea for shows to drop programs that sort of glamorize gun use. On the other hand, we don’t want to hide our heads in the sand. If people are going to have guns, maybe we all need a little primer on what to do — or not do — if confronted with a gun situation.
What do you think? Are you in favor of TV shows about guns?
Here’s a clip from Ted Nugent’s Gun Country:
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