TVs and laptops won’t be the only hot items in South Carolina this Black Friday. The state is offering an unusual perk to shoppers: no sales tax on handguns, rifles and shotguns.

“We are a gun-owning-tradition state, a hunting-tradition state,” said Republican state Rep. Mike Pitts, a retired police officer who introduced the proposal and has promoted other pro-gun legislation.

Legislators approved the holiday in June over the objection of Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, also an avid hunter and gun supporter. He called it a stunt that only affects the timing of a gun purchase, without effectively promoting gun ownership or demand.

The National Rifle Association said no other states are considering a tax-free holiday on gun sales, though the group believes they should.

“Everyone is faced with tough times, and we believe, in addition to helping hunters and shooting sports enthusiasts, this will also help the local economy and merchants,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. “This shows South Carolina cares about America’s hunting heritage, cares about law-abiding gun owners, and other states should follow suit.”

Internet retailers will offer special promotions on Cyber Monday, the day following the Thanksgiving weekend.

Almost all online retailers plan to have a Cyber Monday promotion and retailers plan to offer free shipping on all purchases in what they hope will be a further incentive to buy.

The Monday following the three-day holiday weekend has been dubbed Cyber Monday because many consumers return to work and use their high speed Internet connections to search out deals.

Blockbuster will start renting movies and television shows through a new device that relies on a small box that connects to television sets and stores video after it’s downloaded over high-speed Internet connections.

Netflix also has been trying to create a video-streaming service that can be watched on TV sets through a variety of devices, including a $100 box introduced by Roku Inc. six months ago.

Blockbuster had previously been selling video downloads through Movielink, a service that it bought for last year. But Movielink option was primarily aimed at consumers who don’t mind watching movies on personal computers or portable gadgets with small screens.

With its latest step, Blockbuster is appealing to the larger audience that prefers watching entertainment on big-screen TVS.

To help get its next downloading box into homes, Blockbuster is selling it as part of a $99 package that includes 25 on-demand rentals. After that, Blockbuster will charge at least $1.99 for each downloaded video.

The pay-per-view pricing differs from Netflix’s “instant watching” service, which gives unlimited access to a library of 12,000 titles to any subscriber paying at least $8.99 per month for a DVD rental plan.

Blockbuster’s on-demand service is starting out with just 2,000 selections, but Keyes promises the movies will be of more recent vintage than Netflix’s instant-watching service.

Blockbuster’s on-demand service is starting out with recently released DVD titles such as “Get Smart, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2″ — none of which are available through Netflix’s instant-watching channel.

Netflix streams the video over high-speed Internet with the clarity of a streamed video can vary depending on the speed of the Internet connection being used.

Once a dominant force in home entertainment, Blockbuster has been wounded by Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service, which has 8.7 million subscribers, as well as the on-demand options included in cable subscription packages.