New York City Subway
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Earlier this year, Jeremy and I sat down with a professor from a university in the UK who is writing a book on “how the idea of freedom is understood and practiced in different communities and different parts of the USA.” She wanted to learn more about America’s relationship with and attitudes toward firearms and gun rights.

We met her at The Range at Austin and talked for two-plus hours before putting a couple of guns in her hand and letting her pull the trigger for the first time since she was a child.

It was a wide-ranging discussion, during which she told us that she splits her time between New York City and London. At one point, the current Supreme Court case came up which could eliminate “may issue” conceal carry permitting, allowing New York City residents to get a permit without an eight-figure net worth or the willingness to bribe a NYPD cop.

When we raised the prospect of New Yorkers legally carrying firearms, she shuddered and said the thought of people carrying guns on the subway with her was terrifying. I then told her that I didn’t mean to burst her bubble, but people are already carrying guns on the subways with her and always have been. She didn’t have a response to that, but clearly found the idea unsettling.

Our meeting took place a couple of months before April’s shooting in which a deranged man released a smoke bomb before opening fire and wounding ten people. It’s an impenetrable mystery why that shooting quickly disappeared from new feeds, but this New York shooting still hasn’t.

Yesterday it happened again, this time resulting in a dead subway rider.

An unidentified gunman shot and killed another passenger on a moving New York City subway train Sunday morning in what police officials said appeared to be an unprovoked attack.

The shooting happened on a Q train traveling over the Manhattan Bridge at around 11:40 a.m., a time of day when subway cars are often filled with families, tourists and people headed to Sunday brunch.

Witnesses told police the gunman was pacing the last car of the train, “and without provocation, pulled out a gun and fired it at the victim at close range,” said the NYPD’s Chief of Department, Kenneth Corey.

The 48-year-old victim died at a hospital and was later identified by police as Daniel Enriquez of Brooklyn.

New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, please call your office.

The professor from the land formerly known as Great Britain — like most New Yorkers — probably never considered that many of her fellow subway riders, pedestrians, taxi passengers, and theater-goers are already carrying firearms. Well, she didn’t consider that until I pointed it out. Now, with crime in the Big Apple skyrocketing once again to pre-Giuliani levels, it’s increasingly difficult to maintain that delusion for her and a lot of New Yorkers.

This image released by the New York City Police Department shows an unidentified man who police are looking for in connection with the shooting death of a passenger on a subway train Sunday morning, May 22, 2022. (New York City Police Department via AP)

If the Bruen decision is decided the way that many of us hope and expect it will, the lines that will form for carry permits in a city of over eight million people will dwarf anything ever seen for the hottest Broadway shows or MSG concerts.

Removing the century-old obstacles that have been erected to keep the average law-abiding NYC resident unarmed and cowering in the face of street predators will be gone. And given the attitudes of those currently running the city, making predators think twice about their prospective victims may be the only way to begin to reduce the city’s violent crime rate.

 

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83 COMMENTS

  1. So you are encouraging unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use firearms on CROWDED trains are you? No doubt they would by choice be equipped with THE biggest meanest handgun they could get and which would be perfectly capable of killing two, three or more persons with a single shot. How about giving them all .357 MAGNUM. That should do it. You know and I know because I taught hundreds of young mern and women in the UK service as a Smallarms Instructor that if a bad guy is holding a bloody gun on you GIVE HIM or HER your bloody wallet You and I also know that using a fiream in a CROWDED ENVIRIONMENT for whatever purpose is VERBOTEN unless you are a very very highly trained professional and even a very very highly trained Professional, like I BLOODY WELL WAS for nigh on two decades would have more than second thoughts.

    • You give testimony that you’re a professional moron. So stipulated.

      So when you trained these, “young mern and women”, on the use of weapons to also give up their firearm?

    • Yes, indeed, duncian. It is the right of any and all living creatures to fight in their own self defense. Do you think that humans are less than animals, and that you should deny them the right to self defense?

      You really are British, aren’t you?

      • I have a close relative who was born and raised here in the U.S. in a very pro-gun State, and acquired a dozen of his own guns. Then he moved to the U.K. on a job assignment…

        Over the next couple of decades, he drank the British Kool-Aid tea and completely changed his stance on guns, eventually giving away his collection (which was back here in the U.S. under guardianship of another relative) and renouncing his support of private untrained citizens having the right to keep and bear arms. During my most recent conversation with him, he was flabbergasted as to why I take training courses and am seeking a CCW.

        ****
        Another British man visited my place of employment a few years ago and casually struck up a sidebar conversation with me, choosing the topic of “Americans and their love of guns”. He said he it’s crazy that someone can – in many parts of this nation – visit a gun store and walk out with a gun (or guns) that same day. I calmly looked at him and simply asked, “why not?”

        He stared at me and ended the conversation by walking away.

        • “He stared at me and ended the conversation by walking away.”

          1) Well. You didn’t say what he wanted you to say.
          2) Apparently, in the UK: The idea that dangerous people are out there who would harm you with illegal guns, knives, or other method is more preferable than the knowledge that the public can be trusted to defend themselves with the tools that vastly increase a force multiplier. This is by default, an assumption that the governed populace are inherently bad. Because the general public being dangerous is less preferred than the occasional psychopath being dangerous.

      • quote————You really are British, aren’t you?———quote

        Thanks for the compliment but I am not British. I wish I were and I whish I lived there. Their people never go bankrupt over health care, their country does not suffer from mass shootings every other day, Education is affordable in Britain.

        • Did you go bankrupt over health care?
          Again, if you want to immigrate to the British Isles, we would be happy to pay your way provided you swear you will never return to American soil under any circumstances.

    • The threat of force is often far more a deterrent that the use of force. Yes, I would encourage unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use firearms on CROWDED trains. The possibility that such an event could take place would do more to decrease these types of crimes than the actual event taking place. I would reference the significant drop in subway crime after the Bernard Goetz event in ’84.

      Criminals are evil and often not Mensa graduates, but they’re not dumb. They go where the targets are plentiful (subways) where exits are easy and plentiful (subways) and where they are likely to meet minimum resistance (New York City).

      Toss a self defence possibility and all those stats change. Potential defenders are plentiful (subways), exits are blocked by the movement of the train for a prolonged period of time (subways) and resistance is a real possibility (NYC)

    • Unskilled amateurs are already shooting people on crowded trains. Please stay on you moist, irrelevant island, Al.

    • You prove yourself far more stupid than the average New Yorker. WHO SAID anything about them ALL being untrained and unskilled, OR wanting to have the biggest gun they can possibly carry?

      We who carry our handguns wiht us everywhere we go DO get the training needed to make our shots count, to learn the laws about when and where and why we can shoot without having our lives destroyed by the nasty court systems, as happened to George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhaus. They both survived the attacks but the hell of the legal systems tyranny was maybe almost as bad.
      Training IS availble in many ways yu might not be ware of. Skilled and qualified friends and relatives, join a gun club and more opportunities come along. Many excellent books and videos are availble.

      WHY do you come out with a worst case scenario, just like every state that has proposed concealed carry with or without Mother May I Cards… there will be rivers of blood in the streets, shootouts over parking spots, etc? Grow up. Not everyone is am angry moron like you seem to be. We most of us simply want to get home every night in one piece. Why is that such a nasty thing? And WHY do your ilk want to deny that to us?

    • .357 magnum? That’s a rookie’s gun.

      Harry Callahan carried a .44 magnum — “the most powerful handgun in the world, and it’ll take your head clean off.”

      Not only can it kill two, three, or dozens of people with a single shot, the projectiles that it fires are still circling the globe in low-earth orbit.

      • That was years ago. We now have the adolescent howitzer known as the S&W 500. Doubles as an effective boat anchor as well.

        • No shortage of S&W 500s in the used gun displays of Texas FFLs. Every single one of them looks like it’s only been fired a few times.
          I wonder why. 🤔

    • Two problems with your premise that defense is impossible when you are confronted by an armed criminal:

      Most self defense incidents end with the criminal fleeing because he doesn’t want to risk getting shot by his victim. Simply letting him know you are armed works most of the time.

      Criminals depend, to a large degree, on compliance by their victims. They are often sufficiently careless to offer their victim an opportunity to defend himself successfully provided he has the necessary tools and skills.

      I’d also point out that, if you are weaker than the criminal (e.g. very old or young, female, small in stature, handicapped) he is “armed” with size and strength even if he is bare handed.

    • I’ve said it before. You guys need to leave Prince Albert alone. It’s raining here and there’s nothing on the telly. He’s at least a little amusing.

      • i knew a hi- rise window washing tattooist (lucrative!) who swore the saddest day of his life was when he had his prince albert removed.

    • Yes, just as we encourage “unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use” their voices, printing presses, rosaries, houses, persons and effects.

      Once we acknowledge a right – especially when enumerated in the Constitution – then certain public policy options are off-the-table. I would dearly love to silence you – Albert Hall – yet my respect for the Constitution restrains me.

      Perhaps I would be correct in silencing you. For generations to come, our descendants would be free of your opinion. Yet I’m able to control my own hubris.

      Perhaps you really are correct. For generations to come our surviving descendants would be free of the existence of the unwashed masses who would otherwise perish at the hands of criminals who remain at liberty to continue to rape and pillage at pleasure, armed with stronger arms and fists, cutlery, clubs or – let Gaia forbid! – firearms!

      But as you will. If unskilled amateurs bearing arms disturbs you, then advocate for Congress to prescribe the discipline for the militia and impose an unfunded mandate on the states to train in accordance with Congress’ prescription. Those who will not – or fein incompetence – may be stripped of their 2A rights upon due process of law. Go ahead; make my day!

      • It’s the right of the people, not the right of the militia. 2A applies to those not in one’s state militia just as much as 1A applies to those not in one’s state assembly.

      • “I would dearly love to silence you – Albert Hall – yet my respect for the Constitution restrains me.”

        Mark, Constitutional rights do not apply to subjects of the crown in foreign lands.

        And Al has no respect for our Constitution — why extend him the courtesy?

    • Let’s just let ourselves be shot to death by psychopaths without lifting a finger to defend ourselves…..for safety’s sake.

      • And will become more so the closer it is to the release of the Bruen decision. The antis want to convince us to give up our guns even if we have a Constitutional right to bear arms in public–the last gasp of a drowning man.

      • Well, he hasn’t been gang beaten and robbed on the subway yet. Wait until he is gang beaten and robbed and watch his tune change immediately.

    • I bet merns are hard to teach.
      What’s a mern anyway?
      A cross between a , ,,, well hell I dont know.
      But anyway, ain’t you glad you live in the UK and not in the United States of America. Its god awful over here I tell yah. Just going to the grocery store I have to kill 30 or 40 people a day. Matter of fact is I wish I lived in jolly old England, whoest me.
      OMG somebody just knocked on my door. Scuse me I’ve gotta start blasting.
      Oh shit it was UPS with my shipment of gunms .
      Oh well.

      • Two shotgun blasts blindly through the front door…UPS is used to it and steps to the side when ringing the bell….”sign here Sir…thank you”.

        I’ve said it before…the best men of the U.K. were winnowed during WWI and WWII…the pansies, fops and Aristocrats that didn’t serve were left to propagate the next generations. Selective breeding…just like breeding more docile sheep or horses.

        • Bingo. Truer words were never spoken. France, England, Germany and Russia were reaped in both wars.

          They have never recovered.

      • You must have missed the previous article. You no longer have to carry a gun. You just have to be able to run like really, really fast. Can’t run that fast? Well I guess you’re SOL.

        • Too tired to fight. Too slow to run. And too old to take an ass whoopin’. Guess I’ll have to shoot.

    • You and people like you are why the sun has set on the British Empire. You are a subject instead of a citizen for a reason.

    • @Tobacco Can

      You remind me of a little dog that has to bark loudly and continuously in order to impress the big dogs that you are relevant…in actuality, you are a little, insecure, bug-eyed Chihuahua that is less than a morsel for them and, therefore, they ignore you.

      Would love to see your (U.K. version of the DD-214) Service and Discharge papers.

    • And only someone trained to Roysl Marine Commando, Parachute Regiment, SAS, and counter-terrorism is considered sufficient?

      I’ll bet you spent your time in the catering corps or even the batman and dogsbody to the CO.

    • My life, my family nor my property are worth someone’s life, unless they decide to make it so. If they did not attempt to impose violence I would not. That is the power of freedom to defend yourself instead of being preyed upon. The civilized Countries that do not allow defense are ot civilized at all.

    • So you are encouraging unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use firearms on CROWDED trains are you? No doubt they would by choice be equipped with THE biggest meanest handgun they could get and which would be perfectly capable of killing two, three or more persons with a single shot. How about giving them all .357 MAGNUM. That should do it. You know and I know because I taught hundreds of young mern and women in the UK service as a Smallarms Instructor that if a bad guy is holding a bloody gun on you GIVE HIM or HER your bloody wallet You and I also know that using a fiream in a CROWDED ENVIRIONMENT for whatever purpose is VERBOTEN unless you are a very very highly trained professional and even a very very highly trained Professional, like I BLOODY WELL WAS for nigh on two decades would have more than second thoughts.

      Ok. I see you have gravitated towards the worst case scenario for a person concealed carrying on the subway. How about this scenario instead: you are armed, and you see in the next train car, only two people, a woman and a large man with eyes that looks like he has Leptospirosis, and he is holding a knife toward her, with his unzipped erect ***** whipped out. Do you:

      A) Make a citizen’s arrest
      B) Shrug and go back to sitting in your seat visiting the TTAG online comment section to complain about gun rights?

    • Don’t forget that it was a bunch of amateurs that not only defeated the then greatest army in Europe, but save your country, as well as most of Europe in 2 world wars.
      I served in the US Army for 22 years. Several of those years in a couple elite units.
      Sorry, but if some damn fool threatens me with violence, I will not hesitate to stop that threat. If that means using a firearm, well, it would suck to be the attempted robber or murderer that day.
      Guns are tools. Neither good nor evil. And those who would do evil will find a way to give themselves whatever perceived advantage they can. Most of those who would use violence, or threat of violence, are not concerned about your life. Such people seldom respect or fear anything but being met with overwhelming violence, and the threat of being injured or killed by their potential victim. So, You go ahead and hand over your wallet, and kiss your life goodbye. I will take my chances on defending myself and stopping the criminal from continuing his or her career.

      • His inherent argument was – People are incompetent, thus no freedom should be had in this area.

      • I find it bizarre that he imagined the Brooklyn subway shooter as seeking anyone’s wallet.

    • “So you are encouraging unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use firearms on CROWDED trains are you?”

      Yes.

    • Albert Hall, the British Subject, It seems that civilians who are “untrained(sic)” do better than police in stopping criminals. Sorry. So the whole premise of your post is B/S! If you want to give up your valuables to some thief, that’s your prerogative.

      • Except for the fact that Albert Hall is playing with apples and oranges as usual. The latest subway shooting wasn’t a robbery gone wrong where the victim didn’t hand over a wallet, it was another random nutball whose loose screw fell out in a place where he knew no one would have the necessary tools to fix his problem. Myself, I like to travel prepared and equipped for any emergency.

    • You give them your wallet you pansy-ass tommy. I’m not giving them a damn thing except for bullet holes.

    • “So you are encouraging unskilled amateurs to be given permission to use firearms on CROWDED trains are you? No doubt they would by choice be equipped with THE biggest meanest handgun they could get and which would be perfectly capable of killing two, three or more persons with a single shot. ”

      That would have been the place to stop. Right there. That was good.

      And to answer the question, yes. Yes, I am.

  2. Any hive dwelling eurowussie (or UK subject) who when venturing to the US, 0choses as their destination the NEW YORK CITY cesspool, is a hopeless moron.

  3. Guess what, unskilled amateurs are already using firearms on subways, buses , city streets and supermarkets. There known as criminals a**hole! Why don’t you BLOODY WELL go back to the UK and take your “professional” opinion with you.

    • Parnell, people such as A H don’t have “professional opinions” their opinions are pure bullshit!

  4. “It’s an impenetrable mystery why the subway shooting quickly disappeared from new feeds,”

    It’s no mystery at all. That other subway shooter couldn’t readily be branded a ‘white supremacist’ or a ‘far right extremist’, so the media simply doesn’t care about him, or the people he killed. The narrative must be maintained!

  5. Is this the same subway that grandma got shoved in front of?

    Is this the same New York that keeps voting for and electing all those same people that are the ones taking away their gun rights in the first place?

    Is this the same place that gave so much power to a bar tender named AOC that she could take much need jobs away from New Yorkers?

    Are these the same people that truly believe the Democrat party is their savior as gods to be worshiped and rulers to be praised?

    • Prndll,

      Exactly. And that is why New York City residents will most certainly NOT be lining up in droves to request a concealed carry license (because armed self-defense not in their nature).

      And for the few New York City residents who initially entertain the notion of armed self-defense: they will also dismiss it since embracing armed self-defense would demand that they admit to themselves that they were wrong on that controversy.

  6. Good luck with that…..as long as you have Deblasio 2.0 it’ll never happen! Be easier to just leave like thousands of others!!

  7. I grew up in NYC, but moved to gun-friendly Florida in the late 80’s. I now have a well-stocked gun cabinet, and a good supply of ammo. NYC can esad. (eat sh1t and die)

  8. Well done, Dan and Jeremy. There are still a few who haven’t become drunk on the leftist koolaid, and it looks like you gave her some food for thought. Maybe some of it will stick.

  9. “When we raised the prospect of New Yorkers legally carrying firearms, she shuddered and said the thought of people carrying guns on the subway with her was terrifying.”

    Just a few days back, Strych9 had this to say on the subject with a very compelling argument :

    “Granny doesn’t have sharp teeth, large muscles or claws. She’s got a gun.

    The real truth to this, IME, is that most people who want restrictions on guns do so for two pretty simple reasons. 1. They believe, as do most people, that everyone else thinks like they do and 2. they know they are not capable of responsibly handling a firearm.

    Generally, antis are exactly the type to shoot someone over a minor argument and, assuming everyone else is the same, believe that no one who’s not vetted to prove “special” status should possess such a dangerous implement which they would surely misuse because the Anti themselves most certainly would misuse it.

    By extension, these are not the kind of people you want to give any sort of power to under any circumstances. Not at work and most certainly not in government. Their own argument shows their instability and desire for personal power over others, specifically because they wish to exercise that power.”

    Strych flat *nailed* it with that. I literally can’t count the number of times I’ve personally heard that argument from Leftist Scum ™…

  10. @Albert

    Ah reckin if’n havin’ ever one on a subway armed with a pistol will keep Brits in Brittan, all’s well with the world.

    Heck, if’n the spread of firearms on the subway keeps Nu Yarkers off’n the subway, that’s good too.

  11. Another New York City subway shooting will not mean more New Yorkers will want their gun rights back. That’s preposterous. I was born there and lived in NYC until I was 35. I can state unequivocally that if New Yorkers wanted gun rights, they’d have gun rights. Most NYC denizens are so brainwashed and so stupid that they faint dead away at the very thought of guns in their precious city.

    No problem. If god didn’t want them slaughtered, he would not have made them sheep.

      • to Dud Brain

        quote————-Dude May 23, 2022 At 12:34
        They probably still believe Trump was colluding with Russia. In other news, propaganda still works.———-quote

        U.S. Intelligence as well as British intelligence services proved Trump colluded with Russia but like most of the deranged far right fanatics the truth does not interest you. As a matter of fact you even called the Jan 6th insrrectionalists patriots which is about as nuts as calling Hitler’s Storm Troopers “nice people” oh wait Trump called American Nazi’s at Charlottesville, “nice people” and you ate it all up.

        • Narratives and competing narratives about collusion. Mook is hardly right wing. Considering it came at a time of a very contentious election and 1 candidate felt entitled to the Office one must keep an open mind and still be wary of everything said. Would you agree?

          What was the full quote of what Trumpsaid about Charlottesville? The part of the quote he called neo Nazis bad? You have a problem with context. Removing part of what is said to make it different than the intended meaning s dishonest. If you feel the need o be dishonest then you should reexamine your beliefs and morals.

        • Like I said, they still believe it. Propaganda works. That’s why they do it. The Russia Hoax was seeded by Hillary and the DNC, doofus. There was no collusion.

          “What was the full quote of what Trump said about Charlottesville?”

          It doesn’t matter FormerParatrooper. dacian is a fake news consumer. I’m sure he believes all of the nonsense they put out that is later debunked but never reported on by the MSM. Just like the Russia situation which is nuts because it has been proven that the FBI knew the story was fake BEFORE the Mueller “investigation.” But it wasn’t really an investigation. It was part of their soft coup. The fact that the libs are perfectly fine with that, or intentionally ignorant about it, is scary for our country.

        • “U.S. Intelligence as well as British intelligence services proved Trump colluded with Russia”

          Kindly point me to the section of the Mueller Report that highlights that. No, some years old lying MSM link won’t do. We had a three year long official investigation. Show me the official report that proves collusion. Oh yeah, they couldn’t prove squat…because it was a lie.

        • Dude it is amazing how they twist and turn words and completely erase words to come up with a quote of what they waish was said. When you point out their own words they insist you are misunderstanding them even tho you repeated word for word what they said. They have very limber minds from all the stretching and twisting they must do.

        • dacian, the Dunderhead. That so called “intelligence” has been debunked. Again, you spread lies and propaganda.
          Your buddy Sussman is going to be convicted the first of many.

    • The problem is that they are like feral pigs: they breed faster than they get slaughtered.

  12. How firearms are regulated in European countries has little bearing on the US. Nor should it. Those in Europe who had the guts to do anything to defend themselves, or be anything but serfs for the politicians in charge, either left and came to the New World for a chance to be more than a slave in velvet chains, or were killed in the nearly continuous wars from Napolean to WWII.
    Nor do I honestly believe there will be that great a surge in guns carried on the streets of NYC if they have to go from might to shall issue. Most who honestly feel they need a weapon already have them, and those who would use weapons to do evil do already have them.
    It does seem that those who are anti gun/anti carry, etc. project their own insecurities upon everyone else. Used to have a Brother in Law who was frightened of what he might do if he had a gun. He firmly believed no one should carry a weapon, simply because he couldn’t control his own impulses and urges.

  13. ENGLAND. EUROPE. THE EU. ALL ENSLAVED PEOPLE UNDER THE THUMB OF COMMUNISTS PRETENDING TO BE PUBLIC SERVANTS.

    THEY HAVE LONG FORGOTTEN IT WAS THE AMERICAN FARM BOY RIFLEMAN THAT SAVED THEIR LIBERAL ASSES FROM GERMANY AND JAPAN.

    I DONT GIVE A SHIT WHAT THEY DO IN EUROPE AS THEY REPLACE THEMSELVES WITH THE VERMIN OF EARTH.

    IN THE US HOWEVER I WILL USE MY NATURAL RIGHTS TO PROTECT MY FAMILY AND MYSELF FROM THE PREDATORS BOTH WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT AND WITHIN THE POPULATION. EVERY SHIT HOLE IN AMERICA IS RUN BY COMMUNIST GUN GRABBERS. ESPECIALLY WASHINGTON DC.

    AMERICANS CAN SAVE THEMSELVES FROM COMMUNIST TYRANNY LED BY WASHINGTON. BUT SO FAR THEY LACK THE WILL OR INTELLIGENCE TO DO SO.

  14. If you think New York City will ever give back gun rights you are living in another dream world.

    • “If you think New York City will ever give back gun rights…”

      Prepare for a nightmare that never ends, little boy.

      I can’t wait for you to flip the fuck out the same way Leftist Scum ™ like you collectively lost their shit after Trump won the 2016 election.

      It was truly a ‘Gift That Kept On Giving’ for 4 years… 🙂

      • Something is wrong with a 74 year old man who ” likes toying with people’s minds.”
        I wonder if hes got any grandkids?
        “Let’s go out for ice cream,,Not. Ohh look at them cry.” [sick laughter]

        • But he’s the good guy because he votes for Democrats. The Far Right are the baddies… That’s about the limit of his grasp on morality.

    • They don’t have to. We just fill the scotus with enough Catholics and they will do it for us. And after it’s done, I’ll point at your face and laugh and tell you to suck on it, which is basically what I have been doing to all the abortionists as of late. So your time is coming.

    • “If you think New York City will ever give back gun rights you are living in another dream world.”

      That is a very important observation on your part.

      It admits gun rights were taken therefore gun rights do exist. That means the fight to restore them is legitimate and proper.

      Now man up and fight for them instead of against them.

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