Caleb takes a different point of view on the matter discussed earlier, and gives us some more information about Jim Scoutten’s views about what shouldn’t be on TV in regards to the shooting sports. I don’t really disagree with Jim on his points. I suspect where Boomershoot would fit would be his fifth point:
5) Any event that requires an extraordinary expense by a viewer to become involved. (Full auto events are, at best, an expensive curiosity, and can not extend our invitation to “get involvedâ€)
Though I’ve heard of clubs that do shoots with tannerite, it’s true that it’s not accessible to most people. I’ll give ShootingUSA their editorial prerogative on this one, but is this about it not being appropriate for ShootingUSA or exposure to television at all? I don’t think there’s been any damage to the shooting sports by coverage such at this.  Quite to the contrary, I think it presents Joe’s event as a lot of fun.
So I guess the question is, is Jim Scoutten saying that Boomershoot isn’t appropriate for ShootingUSA, because it’s beyond the perspective of the show, or that Boomershoot isn’t appropriate for any mainstream audience? If it’s the latter, I disagree. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to show people at Knob Creek machine gunning a junkyard school bus. I can see why you wouldn’t want to cover a gaggle of mall ninjas dressed in black or camo. There’s a lot of context missing there for the uninitiated. But I don’t put Boomershoot into that category. I think most people who aren’t reflexively afraid of guns would understand it as fun.
Or for that matter the cost of an effective and accurate long range precision rifle.
hmmm .. a bunch of rootin’ tootin’ gunnies had a disagreement about something and worked it out through intelligent discussion? That’s gonna skew some stats. You know all the sheeple think gun owners have to be at the OK corral at dawn to resolve anything. Too bad the MSM doesn’t report all the non violent stuff we do.
It’s too bad really that we have to tiptoe around the grabbers the way we do to avoid giving a bad impression. I don’t see any other group with their own anti-stereotype movement.
Yeah, that’s a good point actually, I should go grab my gun and shoot Kevin Baker, because that’s what us crazy gun nuts do.
I watched Michael Bane cover Knob Creek once on Shooting Gallery. Now, I like to watch full auto as much as the next guy and I would love to attend Knob Creek sometime. But to tell you the truth, the coverage was pretty boring overall. Before the first break, they showed a bunch of guys lined up shooting full auto at some appliances filled with tannerite. After the break they showed a bunch of guys shooting full auto at some cars filled with tannerite. The last segment featured the entire line firing full auto at nite at some targets filled with tannerite. On the coolness level it ranked up there but as a 1/2 hour TV show there wasn’t anything you couldn’t see on youtube. Without some sort of competition or new gun feature, there really just isn’t much real meat to covering a machine-gun shoot. I’ll still watch it of course but if Jim Scouten thinks there is not much there to feature in a whole show, then he is probably right. He has never been afraid to show black rifles at all so I doubt it would be a political decision. There are no sponsors to push new full auto stuff to the public so I would rather think the decision is economic. Nothing to sell but a turn at someone else’s gun at such an event.
I’m willing to give him that it’s not his show’s cup of tea, but that’s not what he said.
And keep in mind that I think shows like Shooting USA and Jim do a lot for the shooting sports, so I’m not bad mouthing the guy’s contributions, but I disagree with his statement.
“I’ve always thought there are some events that shouldn’t get National TV coverage. â€
“So what, in my judgment, is not acceptable for prime time national TV?â€
Jim Scoutten’s words seem pretty clear to me there. That’s not “this isn’t a good fit for our show” wording. That looks pretty clearly like “I don’t think you should broadcast this type of thing at all”.
And, obviously, it is appropriate for mainstream audience, given that similar things have been featured on Discovery Channel’s “Wreckreation Nation” show.
As you said, if he does not want to feature it on his shindig, more power to him – it is his show. But dismissing and diminishing it out of hand as ineligible for any publicity? Yeah, that is just a little rude.