Just weeks after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Time Warner Cable has initiated a companywide ban on certain gun ads.
"We no longer accept ads showing semiautomatic weapons and guns pointed at people,” Time Warner Cable said in a statement. “We stand by this policy. If it's essential to a business owner to show this kind of imagery in their commercials, there are other advertising options in the marketplace."
On Dec. 14, 27 people, including 20 elementary schoolchildren, were killed at Sandy Hook. The tragedy has spurred a national outcry for tougher gun laws.
On Jan. 16, President Barack Obama mapped out new gun control measures that would require universal background checks for all gun purchasers and place a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association said in a statement Wednesday that it supported the president’s proposals.
The TWC ban comes also comes shortly after sports network the Sportsman Channel came under fire for running a National Rifle Association ad that called the president an “elitist hypocrite” for coming out against an NRA proposal to put armed guards in elementary schools while his teenage daughters are protected by armed Secret Service guards.
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” the ad asks.
That ad runs only during Sportsman Channel’s NRANews Cam & Co. hour, a television version of the popular talk radio show hosted by Cam Edwards that begain airing Jan. 15 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. (ET) on the channel.
The ad has drawn the ire of pundits and politicians alike, with MSNBC talk-show host Rachel Maddow and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both criticizing the NRA for stepping over the line.
