Advocates Urge LivingSocial to Stop Promoting Events Mixing Guns and Alcohol

Gun control advocacy groups are urging the daily deal website LivingSocial to stop promoting events that mix guns and alcohol, The Hill reports.

Groups including The Gun Truth Project, MomsRising and CREDO Action say these deals encourage shooting and drinking, which threatens public safety.

CREDO Action notes in a statement, “LivingSocial continues to offer deals that encourage buyers to engage in a dangerous mix of alcohol and guns. In some cases, customers are even sold packages combining the shooting of assault weapons like the ones used in the Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colorado massacres, and a night of drinking beer or bourbon.”

According to the group, 86 percent of gun murders are committed by people who were drinking before they started shooting.They say competitor websites, such as Groupon, no longer offer gun and alcohol packages.

In a report, CREDO Action and The Gun Truth Project describe some of the deals that have been offered on the website. These include a $69 package offered in Philadelphia called “Shootin’ + Drinking’: AK-47s, Rifles and Beer.” The report also describes packages offered in Atlanta and Chicago.

The groups say the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut should cause LivingSocial to reconsider its policies. Offering these deals “is not only tone-deaf to the anguished politics of the moment, it is also monstrously, irresponsibly dangerous,” the report states.

LivingSocial spokesman Andrew Weinstein said the company takes gun safety very seriously, and requires customers to sign a form that certifies they have not consumed any alcohol or illegal drugs before participating. “Our staff has also [been] instructed to turn away any participant who appears to have consumed alcohol or drugs prior to the event,” he said.

“We offer similar social activities involving alcohol after other sporting events, like whitewater rafting, once the activity is complete,” Weinstein told The Hill.