Discovery Channel's reality series "American Guns" was canceled in 2012 after two seasons, and some said the popular show fell victim to an anti-gun mentality after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Discovery told Deadline that the Connecticut shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, didn’t have anything to do with the decision to cancel the show and had been made beforehand. But Deadline said that the channel’s failure to air reruns of the reality TV show indicated the shooting did have an impact.
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"'American Guns' concluded earlier this year,” a Discovery spokesperson told Deadline. "Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show."
Discovery pulled the show despite the fact that it debuted for its second season with viewership up 50 percent over its first-year ratings. In addition, the
Denver Westword blog said, Renee Wyatt had said the show would return for a third season.
Deadline also speculated that Discovery’s decision likely had something to do with angry posts that showed up on the show’s Facebook page after the violence at Sandy Hook. The National Rifle Association chose to temporarily take its Facebook page down after receiving numerous hostile comments about the shooting.
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After canceling "American Guns," the Discovery network also got rid of “Sons of Guns” and nixed “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country,” a one-hour special that had been rumored to become a regular show.
“In targeting pro-gun shows that teach people how to exercise their rights for cancellation, the Discovery Channel has taken a firm stance against the Second Amendment and is implying that the mere
discussion of guns is now off limits,” Infowars said.
"American Guns" followed the Gunsmoke Gun store located near Denver, Colorado, run by the Wyatt family. Since the show was canceled, the family has come under scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. According to
Denver’s Westword blog, an affidavit accused the family of failure to pay taxes, among other things, and indicated the investigation had been going on for several years.
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