On Wednesday's Velshi and Ruhle show on MSNBC, co-host Ali Velshi -- who also serves as a business correspondent for NBC News -- admitted that he had considered boycotting Amazon because it provides a forum to NRA TV, as he lamented that it is difficult for consumers to switch to companies that in some way do not support the gun industry.
Additionally, this week the show has begun what appears to be a daily count of how many days it has been since the Parkland school shootings, as Velshi and co-host Stephanie Ruhle -- another NBC News business correspondent -- complain that there have still been "zero" laws passed by the federal government.
On Wednesday morning, as Stephanie Ruhle also hosted her regular spot on MSNBC Live shortly after 9:00 a.m. ET, she began by celebrating the decision by Dick's Sporting Goods to be more restrictive in its gun sales, as she also made a crack about Congress providing "thought's and prayers" after mass shootings. Ruhle:
And pump up the volume for this unloading. Dick's Sporting Goods -- one of the nation's major gun retailers -- says it's going to stop selling assault-style rifles, sending a clear message to Congress, "Hey, boys and girls, thought's and prayers, they're not enough."
Then, shortly after the Velshi and Ruhle show began at 11:00 a.m. ET, Ruhle returned to co-host, and she recited the daily count to complain about Congress not passing gun control:
Congress may have "thoughts and prayers," but we're seeing some action. It has been 14 days since 17 students and adults were brutally killed and 14 others injured by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Since then, there have been zero -- zero -- zero federal laws passed protecting Americans from gun violence.
The day before, Velshi had similarly recited the count while lamenting no new laws by the "federal government."
A bit later on Wednesday's show, during a discussion of the decision by Dick's Sporting Goods, Velshi recalled how difficult it has been for him to act out on his anti-NRA and anti-gun sentiments:
So I said this to my wife, Laurie, I said, you know, "I think until Amazon stops screening NRA TV, maybe I don't want to have it," and she said, "What will you do?" And I said, "I'll buy things from other people," and then she says, "Who?" and I said, "Well, Wal-Mart is making a big push online." And she goes, "Wal-Mart sells more guns than anyone does. So you're mad at Amazon.com for streaming NRA TV, but Wal-Mart actually sells the guns."
So when I started to think about the associations that all of us have with guns in America, taking a position to boycott -- a fair one in which you're boycotting everyone who's profiting off of guns -- would actually be quite hard for the average American to do.
