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Posted: 3/7/2010 6:48:17 PM EDT
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...265703536.html Love affair with firearms won't be quelled by mere statistics LARA MARLOWE AMERICA: Cities and states that restrict gun ownership are seeing that prerogative threatened by the Supreme Court ‘WE AMERICANS, we cling proudly to our guns and religion,” Sarah Palin, the failed vice-presidential candidate and darling of the Tea Party movement, said at a recent rally for Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas. The historian Richard Hofstadter coined the phrase “gun culture” to describe America’s love affair with firearms. An estimated 25 per cent of American adults own guns, and one in two American adults live in a household with guns. This streak of irrationality flowing through the American psyche has a little flag stuck in it, with the words “Second Amendment” emblazoned on it. Gun enthusiasts cite their God-given right so often that one must quote the passage from the Constitution in full: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” This irrational streak is impervious to the fact that guns kill. The Centre for Disease Control confirms that in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, firearms accounted for 67 per cent of the 18,573 homicides in the US. And if the statistics weren’t convincing enough, there’s a long line of assassinations and mass killings, made possible by the easy availability of weapons: Columbine High in Colorado, where two students killed 13 people before committing suicide in 1999; Virginia Tech, where a student killed 32 people and himself in 2007. Just last month, Amy Bishop, a professor at the University of Alabama, shot six of her colleagues, killing three of them. On February 23rd, the governors of Colorado State University voted to ban students carrying concealed weapons on campus. At a time when the “concealed carry movement” and “open carry movement” are campaigning aggressively nationwide, the Colorado ban was vigorously opposed by a student group that argued guns would give them a better chance of survival in the event of a Virginia Tech-style massacre. James Alderden, the Sheriff of Larimer County, said he was outraged by the ban and would seek to undermine it in the interest of student safety. On the day of the Colorado decision, a gunman with a high-powered rifle shot and wounded a boy and girl at a middle school in Denver. In Virginia, which is home to the four-million-strong National Rifle Association, the legislature recently voted to repeal a 17-year-old law that bans residents from buying more than one gun a month. The gun-a-month law came about because Virginia had become the gun-running capital of the east coast. A Batman cartoon book portraying it as such made the state a laughing stock, and led to the 1993 law. L Scott Ligamfelter, the Republican legislator who led the drive for the repeal, said limiting gun purchases was comparable to limiting church attendance. On Thursday, a Virginia state senate committee stocked with anti-gun Democrats struck down the repeal, a minor setback for the Virginia gun lobby, whose 21 pro-gun Bills last year are known as the “21-gun salute”. These include a law allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in restaurants and bars. In 29 US states, it’s legal to carry a loaded handgun without any form of permit. And those cities and states which restrict gun ownership now see that prerogative threatened by none other than the US Supreme Court. In the 2008 District of Columbia v Heller case, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on hand guns in the nation’s capital on the grounds it violated the Second Amendment – ignoring the fact that the amendment apparently referred to state militias, not individuals. Because the District is not a state but a federal enclave, the ruling did not immediately apply to the states. But it opened the way for numerous lawsuits by would-be gun owners. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in one of those cases, McDonald v Chicago. Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old African-American with a gentle smile, is demanding the right to keep a handgun in his home on the south side of Chicago to protect himself from gangs. The conservative justices made it clear they will overrule the Chicago ban on handguns. When Steven Breyer, a liberal justice, asked if cities couldn’t ban guns if that meant “saving hundreds of lives”, the conservative justice Antonin Scalia retorted: “We don’t resolve questions like that on the basis of statistics.” President Barack Obama has disappointed advocates of gun control, who recall he promised to stop dealers at gunshows selling weapons without background checks, to revive the ban on the sale of assault weapons and to force states to release gun-related crime statistics. Instead, Obama last year signed Bills allowing guns to be carried in national parks and in luggage on Amtrak trains. Both provisions were attached to larger pieces of legislation that the president wanted to see passed. Letters to the Editor +353 1 675 8000, [email protected] In the US we have guns and have had them for centuries and used them to put a boot in the bum of the Brits twice, in Ireland they have restricted weapons for centuries and the Brits have 6 of their counties. Do the fracking math. |
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Fuck Ireland. They weren't so squeamish when they were bombing and knee-capping themselves to independence.
Fuck those liberal cocksuckers. |
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Quoted: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...265703536.html Love affair with firearms won't be quelled by mere statistics LARA MARLOWE AMERICA: Cities and states that restrict gun ownership are seeing that prerogative threatened by the Supreme Court ‘WE AMERICANS, we cling proudly to our guns and religion,” Sarah Palin, the failed vice-presidential candidate and darling of the Tea Party movement, said at a recent rally for Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas. The historian Richard Hofstadter coined the phrase “gun culture” to describe America’s love affair with firearms. An estimated 25 per cent of American adults own guns, and one in two American adults live in a household with guns. This streak of irrationality flowing through the American psyche has a little flag stuck in it, with the words “Second Amendment” emblazoned on it. Gun enthusiasts cite their God-given right so often that one must quote the passage from the Constitution in full: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” This irrational streak is impervious to the fact that guns kill. The Centre for Disease Control confirms that in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, firearms accounted for 67 per cent of the 18,573 homicides in the US. And if the statistics weren’t convincing enough, there’s a long line of assassinations and mass killings, made possible by the easy availability of weapons: Columbine High in Colorado, where two students killed 13 people before committing suicide in 1999; Virginia Tech, where a student killed 32 people and himself in 2007. Just last month, Amy Bishop, a professor at the University of Alabama, shot six of her colleagues, killing three of them. On February 23rd, the governors of Colorado State University voted to ban students carrying concealed weapons on campus. At a time when the “concealed carry movement” and “open carry movement” are campaigning aggressively nationwide, the Colorado ban was vigorously opposed by a student group that argued guns would give them a better chance of survival in the event of a Virginia Tech-style massacre. James Alderden, the Sheriff of Larimer County, said he was outraged by the ban and would seek to undermine it in the interest of student safety. On the day of the Colorado decision, a gunman with a high-powered rifle shot and wounded a boy and girl at a middle school in Denver. In Virginia, which is home to the four-million-strong National Rifle Association, the legislature recently voted to repeal a 17-year-old law that bans residents from buying more than one gun a month. The gun-a-month law came about because Virginia had become the gun-running capital of the east coast. A Batman cartoon book portraying it as such made the state a laughing stock, and led to the 1993 law. L Scott Ligamfelter, the Republican legislator who led the drive for the repeal, said limiting gun purchases was comparable to limiting church attendance. On Thursday, a Virginia state senate committee stocked with anti-gun Democrats struck down the repeal, a minor setback for the Virginia gun lobby, whose 21 pro-gun Bills last year are known as the “21-gun salute”. These include a law allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in restaurants and bars. In 29 US states, it’s legal to carry a loaded handgun without any form of permit. And those cities and states which restrict gun ownership now see that prerogative threatened by none other than the US Supreme Court. In the 2008 District of Columbia v Heller case, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on hand guns in the nation’s capital on the grounds it violated the Second Amendment – ignoring the fact that the amendment apparently referred to state militias, not individuals. Because the District is not a state but a federal enclave, the ruling did not immediately apply to the states. But it opened the way for numerous lawsuits by would-be gun owners. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in one of those cases, McDonald v Chicago. Otis McDonald, a 76-year-old African-American with a gentle smile, is demanding the right to keep a handgun in his home on the south side of Chicago to protect himself from gangs. The conservative justices made it clear they will overrule the Chicago ban on handguns. When Steven Breyer, a liberal justice, asked if cities couldn’t ban guns if that meant “saving hundreds of lives”, the conservative justice Antonin Scalia retorted: “We don’t resolve questions like that on the basis of statistics.” President Barack Obama has disappointed advocates of gun control, who recall he promised to stop dealers at gunshows selling weapons without background checks, to revive the ban on the sale of assault weapons and to force states to release gun-related crime statistics. Instead, Obama last year signed Bills allowing guns to be carried in national parks and in luggage on Amtrak trains. Both provisions were attached to larger pieces of legislation that the president wanted to see passed. Letters to the Editor +353 1 675 8000, [email protected] In the US we have guns and have had them for centuries and used them to put a boot in the bum of the Brits twice, in Ireland they have restricted weapons for centuries and the Brits have 6 of their counties. Do the fracking math. I recently read through the transcript of the oral arguments and IIRC it was actually Gura who said this, not Scalia. If they can't get a basic fact like this down then they have no business in journalism of any kind. |
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Hey Lara, worry bout Ireland and we will worry bout U.S.
In other words, pound sand bitch. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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So why does Switzerland have low crime? If guns are a problem a country where everyone is required to own a machine gun should be ZOMG wild west death fest.
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Quoted:
Fuck Ireland. They weren't so squeamish when they were bombing and knee-capping themselves to independence. Fuck those liberal cocksuckers. There was some 16 yr old self proclaimed Irish communist running mad on a British music & nightlife forum on Myspace back in 2006 that was really ticking me off one time. Anyway, what does knee-capping mean? |
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Few things are as ubiquitous as the European lust to be subjugated and enslaved.
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Quoted: Quoted: Fuck Ireland. They weren't so squeamish when they were bombing and knee-capping themselves to independence. Fuck those liberal cocksuckers. There was some 16 yr old self proclaimed Irish communist running mad on a British music & nightlife forum on Myspace back in 2006 that was really ticking me off one time. Anyway, what does knee-capping mean? The IRA –– Irish Republican Army –– back during the war in Northern Ireland used to punish those who they believed to be to collaborators with the Brits by shooting off their kneecaps with a rifle. Not fatal, highly painful, obvious to everyone else. ETA: The pro-British protestant faction, the UDR –– Ulster Defense Regiment –– used to do some pretty nasty things to "Feinians" (Irish nationalists) too, but kneecapping was a trademark of the IRA. |
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That's not even journalism. It's one of the shittiest opinion pieces I've ever seen, and it's full of errors in fact.
I'll take the Irish seriously about gun control when they stop killing the shit out of each other. |
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Sweet Jesus I'm glad my ancestors left that island.
The British have completely pussified them. |
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Ireland..
Why don't you worry about your DUI problem. I can't tell you the amount of people that I know who have personally lost others due to DUI crashes by their fault or another. |
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Recently, I was at a bar, when a group of real life irishmen walked in. I had a few drinks in me, so I struck up a conversation.
They were quite arrogant and being rude about Americans. I started telling them, "I love the irish! You guys are awesome. You're known for fighting and drinking and being badasses." They ate it up. They were saying, "Cheers mate!" I continued, "How come you always got your ass kicked by the fucking english?" The looks on their faces were priceless. |
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Seriously, does anyone care about what some guy from Ireland think about our gun laws?
We're America...and they're not. HH |
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Herr Gott im Himmel!
If you don't want guns in your own shitty country, that's your business. What we do here is not your business. If its not screwing you over somehow, why do these assholes even care what we do over here? |
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When Steven Breyer, a liberal justice, asked if cities couldn’t ban guns if that meant “saving hundreds of lives”, the conservative justice Antonin Scalia retorted: “We don’t resolve questions like that on the basis of statistics.”
Justice Scalia could have pointed out that 5 times as many people die from nocosomial infection. Could cities ban hospitals if that meant "saving a hundred thousand lives a year?" |
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I used to argue all the time with an irish "friend" chick about the importance of firearms. After a few months, I realized there is absolutely NO reasoning with these brainwashed idiots. That and her stance on Obama, refusal to see that it's his policies and not his color (kept throwing out the racist card) led to us not really being friends anymore, and I don't miss her.
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[/span][span style='color: rgb(0, 100, 0);']In the US we have guns and have had them for centuries and used them to put a boot in the bum of the Brits twice, in Ireland they have restricted weapons for centuries and the Brits have 6 of their counties. Do the fracking math.[/span] I recently read through the transcript of the oral arguments and IIRC it was actually Gura who said this, not Scalia. If they can't get a basic fact like this down then they have no business in journalism of any kind. [/quote] See my Sig line... |
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I read a lot of newspapers when I was in Ireland awhile back. They are pathetically liberal. Their papers are insanely left wing
Everyone there is scared shitless of firearms. I'd have figured they'd like the idea of the safety and defense they provide considering their past history. Pathetic people, beautiful state. |
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If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British?
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America's love affair with freedom won't be quelled by the opinions of mere Irish people. |
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Oh, and another thing...ask them what they think about the French. Oh my god, they would have gay orgies with the French 24/7 if they could, they love them so fucking much....that says it all.
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Oh, wait, there was one guy there who owned a cattle farm...HUGE tract of land, took me rabbit hunting & shooting while there. He was awesome...and everyone else in his office thought he was weird & was afraid of him. He was 10x better educated than any of these other morons, knew of fine wines & literature, and one day he decided to say fuck you all to these morons & quit. Hell, his farm was worth at least 50 million Euros..I always wondered why the hel he worked anyway!
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Were I Irish, I would also be bitter about other folks freedom.
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All they have to do is look to the north of the Republic of Eire to see just how well gun control works. The factions in Northern Ireland had no problems getting firearms for nasty ends, despite all the controls Britain put in place to stem the flow. The Irish are living in a fantasy world. |
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Quoted: If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British? A lot of them were smuggled in from sympathetic Irish communities in Massachusetts. I remember a big sting operation where they busted members of a local ANG unit that was shipping M-16s and M-60s to the IRA back in the '80s. |
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Ireland.. Why don't you worry about your DUI problem. I can't tell you the amount of people that I know who have personally lost others due to DUI crashes by their fault or another. So true. I had a 45 min conversation about firearms in a Dublin pub with a guy who hated firearms, on the basis that they're dangerous and cause accidents. The guy (maybe mid-50's) leaves the pub completely wasted.... and drives off. (side note, the place was called "The Church" and is the coolest fucking bar of all time) |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British? A lot of them were smuggled in from sympathetic Irish communities in Massachusetts. I remember a big sting operation where they busted members of a local ANG unit that was shipping M-16s and M-60s to the IRA back in the '80s. So wait. You're suggesting that it is possible to break gun control laws to such a degree as to render them utterly ineffective? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Fuck Ireland. They weren't so squeamish when they were bombing and knee-capping themselves to independence. Fuck those liberal cocksuckers. There was some 16 yr old self proclaimed Irish communist running mad on a British music & nightlife forum on Myspace back in 2006 that was really ticking me off one time. Anyway, what does knee-capping mean? Gun barrel to back of knee, pull trigger. Guy won't be running any marathons. |
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The Centre for Disease Control confirms that in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, firearms accounted for 67 per cent of the 18,573 homicides in the US. Here's another statistic: 100% of HOMICIDES are committed by criminals. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British? A lot of them were smuggled in from sympathetic Irish communities in Massachusetts. I remember a big sting operation where they busted members of a local ANG unit that was shipping M-16s and M-60s to the IRA back in the '80s. And the IRA started getting some WarPac/ComBloc items when they shifted to the hard left politically. The Protestant Paramilitaries used a lot British Army issue stuff that was stolen, or "loaned" to them by sympathizers in the RUC and Army. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British? A lot of them were smuggled in from sympathetic Irish communities in Massachusetts. I remember a big sting operation where they busted members of a local ANG unit that was shipping M-16s and M-60s to the IRA back in the '80s. So wait. You're suggesting that it is possible to break gun control laws to such a degree as to render them utterly ineffective? Unbelievable, but true. |
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There's an "email author" option-
"There are other statistics you might want to look at- FBI crime data says violent crime in the US is at an all time low." I anxiously await a reply. |
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In my experience, people from "mainstream" Europe and European society just don't understand firearms and are, in many cases, scared by them. I'm talking about people from big cities like Paris, Madrid, etc. The exceptions that I've seen are people from rural France, people from the Balkans, and Basques.
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Fuck Ireland. They weren't so squeamish when they were bombing and knee-capping themselves to independence. Fuck those liberal cocksuckers. There was some 16 yr old self proclaimed Irish communist running mad on a British music & nightlife forum on Myspace back in 2006 that was really ticking me off one time. Anyway, what does knee-capping mean? The IRA –– Irish Republican Army –– back during the war in Northern Ireland used to punish those who they believed to be to collaborators with the Brits by shooting off their kneecaps with a rifle. Not fatal, highly painful, obvious to everyone else. ETA: The pro-British protestant faction, the UDR –– Ulster Defense Regiment –– used to do some pretty nasty things to "Feinians" (Irish nationalists) too, but kneecapping was a trademark of the IRA. I've also heard that power drills were used. |
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Nobody else cares what Ireland things, and neither should we
Anyone who cannot read the second amendment and understand it's wording does not deserve an opinion, or even the ability to speak on the issue. "THE right of the individual to bear arms, shall not be infringed." The Second Amendment does not GIVE us the right to bear arms, it merely protects it. |
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Herr Gott im Himmel! If you don't want guns in your own shitty country, that's your business. What we do here is not your business. If its not screwing you over somehow, why do these assholes even care what we do over here? Exactly.. the presumptious bastards. |
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Quoted:
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If gun control is so fucking effective, how did the IRA get illegal guns to fight the British? A lot of them were smuggled in from sympathetic Irish communities in Massachusetts. I remember a big sting operation where they busted members of a local ANG unit that was shipping M-16s and M-60s to the IRA back in the '80s. So wait. You're suggesting that it is possible to break gun control laws to such a degree as to render them utterly ineffective? Unbelievable, but true. Near my dad's pizza shop was an Irish bar that got busted smuggling arms...supposedly stinger missiles and shit...but that could just be wild speculation... |
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In my experience, people from "mainstream" Europe and European society just don't understand firearms and are, in many cases, scared by them. I'm talking about people from big cities like Paris, Madrid, etc. The exceptions that I've seen are people from rural France, people from the Balkans, and Basques. Kinda like talking to people from New York, Chicago, and DC, right? |
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This irrational streak is impervious to the fact that guns kill. The Centre for Disease Control confirms that in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, firearms accounted for 67 per cent of the 18,573 homicides in the US. And within that statics are all the innocent people who used guns to defend themselves. |
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I have had a chance to do some traveling. When in England we we walking past a antique shop and the English friends we were with pointed out a complete British WW2 British uniform complete with a demiled Enfield rifle. He looked at me and said you look at guns a little differently that we do. I said we do. If you come for a visit you could shoot one of them or a M1 Garand or a AR15, I thought he was going to shit his pants, first he started by shushing me you can't talk about shooting there and then he said Really? Yes, I replied and just about any thing else you would like. I had not realized how lucky we are because our Founding Fathers made sure the “Second Amendment” was in our Constitution.
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the irish that came here were bad asses. The irish that stayed were not.
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Hey Lara, worry bout Ireland and we will worry bout U.S. In other words, pound sand bitch. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile And there it is. End of the thread. |
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Quoted:
I used to argue all the time with an irish "friend" chick about the importance of firearms. After a few months, I realized there is absolutely NO reasoning with these brainwashed idiots. That and her stance on Obama, refusal to see that it's his policies and not his color (kept throwing out the racist card) led to us not really being friends anymore, and I don't miss her. LOL I had a friend while I was over in the UK ask "you don't REALLY own and shoot guns?" with a look of horror on his face. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
In my experience, people from "mainstream" Europe and European society just don't understand firearms and are, in many cases, scared by them. I'm talking about people from big cities like Paris, Madrid, etc. The exceptions that I've seen are people from rural France, people from the Balkans, and Basques. Kinda like talking to people from New York, Chicago, and DC, right? Hey, I'm from NY...plenty of us who love firearms here. |
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