Will There Ever Be a "Right Time" for USA's Shooter?

Originally scheduled to debut on July 19, it was first delayed a week after the July 7 attack in Dallas in which a sniper killed five police officers.

[...] there have been plenty of mass shootings in the country since July 17, but apparently USA's marketing department realized that if they continued bumping the show after every one, it would never make it to air.

For those unfamiliar with the film, the story follows Bob Lee Swagger (Ryan Phillippe), an ex-Marine sniper and expert marksman who is recruited out of retirement after his former commanding officer (Omar Epps) learns of a plot to assassinate the president.

Phillippe is convincing as Swagger, who embodies all the stereotypes of a Real American Hero: quiet resolve, good looks, an undying devotion to his wife and daughter, a tightly-clenched jaw, and a moral code as solid as his muscular build.

The way Shooter is, well, shot - with close-up, slow-motion sequences of a bullet as it follows its trajectory from a gun and explodes into its intended target are cinematic and often transfixing.

There's a lot to be said for escapist entertainment, but at a time when guns, the right to own them, and the correct way to use them are such hot-button, politically-charged issues -- not to mention when national anger is at a fever pitch -- do we need yet another illustration of how totally awesome it is when a bullet completely pulverizes something, whether it be (in the case of Shooter's premiere episode) a pumpkin, a glass window, or human flesh?

Before it can get too far, Swagger knocks it out with a tranquilizer, releases its paw from a jaw trap, and even gives the creature a shot to prevent infection.