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Senator Frank Lautenberg (courtesy courierpostonline.com)

Press release from Senator Lautenberg’s office confirming Nick’s initial concerns expressed just minutes after the Boston Marathon bomb attack.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the wake of the deadly bombing attacks in Boston, U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today (Wednesday) announced that he will reintroduce legislation he has proposed in a prior Congress to require that sales of explosive powder be subject to a background check. He will also file the legislation as an amendment to the gun violence prevention bill currently on the Senate floor . . .

Current law allows an individual to purchase as much as 50 pounds of explosive “black powder” without a background check, and also permits an individual to purchase unlimited amounts of dangerous “smokeless powder” and “black powder substitute” without a background check.  Sen. Lautenberg’s proposal would change that and require a background check for any purchase of these explosive powders.  These powders can be used as the explosive material in assembling pipe bombs, used in the Columbine school shooting, and pressure cooker bombs, which may have been used in the recent Boston attack.

It is outrageous that anyone, even a known terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosives without any questions asked,” said Senator Lautenberg. “If we are serious about public safety, we must put these common-sense safeguards in place.  While the police have not revealed what specific explosive materials were used in Boston, what we do know is that explosive powder is too easy to anonymously purchase across the country.”

Lautenberg will introduce the “Explosive Materials Background Check Act,” which will:

·    Require a background check to purchase black powder, black powder substitute, smokeless powder, or any other explosive, in any quantity;

·    Provide the Attorney General with the authority to stop the sale of explosives when a background check reveals that the applicant is a known or suspected terrorist and the Attorney General reasonably believes that the person may use the explosives in connection with terrorism; and

·    Make it illegal to manufacture homemade explosives without a permit.

Lautenberg introduced a similar proposal in 2003 as part of his “Homeland Security Gun Safety Act of 2003.”  Current law does not require an individual to produce a permit, identification or undergo a background check when purchasing up to fifty pounds of black powder.  To make matters worse, no permit or background check is required for the purchase of any quantity of black powder substitute or smokeless powder.  Current explosives laws also do not prevent the manufacture of homemade explosives without a license, unless the manufacturer is “engaged in the business” of making explosives.

In October 2010, Sen. Lautenberg released a report, Firearms, Explosives and Terrorists – A Looming Threat – A Major U.S. Vulnerability,” examining the dangers posed to the United States by terrorism attacks using explosives.  The report points to the Mumbai attacks and attempted bombing in Times Square, as demonstrating the interest and ability of terrorists to launch attacks in the United States using explosives.

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158 COMMENTS

    • First off, ever notice how the majority of the anti-gun politicians are older than the radio?

      Secondly, this guy is the perfect example of why we need term limits. He’s 89 and has spent the past 31 years as a politician. He has no idea what life is like for actual Americans because he hasn’t been one in almost a third of a century.

      • I think you are right. Perhaps that would promote more of a public service culture rather than a political service one.

        I still think their compensation should be reduced to that of a captain in the .mil (maybe even less). With term limits and reduced pension. Being a Senator or Representative should not be a lucrative career, it should be a sacrifice to serve the public.

        • They should make no more than $42,979.61/yr. If a captain in the military makes less than that then someone needs a flogging.

        • I’m sure that would be followed by an immediate vote to increase the pay of Army Captains.

          “Their selfless and devoted service to America has to be better recognized with higher pay at the Captain level” –Every Senator

        • oh god I can just hear that happening on c-span in my head. barely a jump from the insane stuff they normally say.

    • He doesn’t look like he’ll got much left in him. All these geriatric congressman need to call it quits. They don’t have the brain power to think clearly.

    • The NJ Democrats resurrected him when they were afraid they might lose the seat. No one checked him for a pulse.

      • Now, don’t insult Master Yoda. He was a Jedi knight who led young Luke to the good side of the Force, and was a likeable little guy in general. Not like this evil geriatric creep.

        Lautenberg should be tried for treason for the effects of his cursed amendment upon the military & gun owners. He is worse than Feinstein and has a special place in Hell waiting.

        • Under examination, the infamous “Lautenberg Amendment” is a DIRECT VIOLATION of Article 1, Section 9 of the U. S. Constitution’s prohibition of congress passing “ex post facto” (retroactive) law(s).

    • I was just going to ask if the picture was of an actual living human. I never heard of the guy. How many years has this guy suckled at the taxpayers’ teat?

      • A very long time, and he did retire once, but someone dug him up and pushed him back in office to serve out a term and he has stayed on. As a former resident of the People’s Demokratik Republik of New Jersey, I can truly say it is past time for him to retire and tend his fowers while yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn.

    • This is a backdoor attempt to require a full background check to purchase ammunition. The 50 pound rule is pointless – it will only inconvenience people trying to make a large truck bomb, not a backpack bomb. For a backpack bomb you could easily purchase a few hundred rounds of ammunition and pull the bullets.

      • Yep. and that’s how they will get it. They will pass this and then argue that ammo has ton’s of black powder and will then include ammo because it falls under black powder. This is how it starts. Just because people don’t reload doesn’t mean they don’t need to fight this. They try every sneaky trick in the book

        • TONS. Not “ton is”. HOW HARD is the apostrophe lesson to learn? My grandson is nearly 8, and you better BELIEVE he will never place an apostrophe before a terminal “s” unless it follows the rule.

          I’m NOT being pissy. We need to learn third-grade grammar, if we’re to be taken seriously.

      • The Oklahoma City truck bomb was fertilizer and diesel fuel…we gonna outlaw those too? Present a permit and pass a background check at RaceTrac to buy gas now?

  1. OH dear well I guess we saw that coming. So fertilizer will need a background check now?? My roses are toast!

      • Obama is considering an E. O. requiring a 5 day wait and a background check to purchase kitchen appliances, and has placed Betty Crocker on the “No Fly” list.

      • Sure they can be traced, right back to the farmer they get stolen from or to the fake ID of the bomber who purchased them.

  2. Well we all knew that was coming. I KNEW that I should have stocked up today! Won’t be any on the shelves tomorrow. The damned liberals never learn.

      • For that, you should give thanks and praise. God never gives us anything we can’t handle.

        And I’m an agnostic. I neither believe nor disbelieve in the Unknowable. But I know we’re continually tested by life. This game is one we must emerge victorious from. If we fail, we’re truly doomed for a LONG time.

        If you find something is obstructing you path, you have two choices: find a way around it, or demolish it.

        We may have to do both.

        • “If you find something that’s obstructing you path…”. Your. YOUR! HOW HARD is the posessive lesson to learn? My grandson is nearly 8, and you better BELIEVE he will never use ‘you’ in the place of ‘your’!

  3. “It’s outrageous that anyone, even a known terrorist, can buy gasoline!”

    God, why can’t this living pile of excrement just die already? Why is it the evil ones that always live to old age? Pacts with the devil or something?

    Leftists won’t stop until everything a subject can “own” is regulated by the all-powerful state.

    • remember what Reagan said was the governments view of the economy:
      “If it moves, tax it.
      If it keeps moving, regulate it.
      And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

    • “God, why can’t this living pile of excrement just die already?” Lautenberg has had one foot in the grave and his other foot on a banana peel for years! That’s one of the problems in government, these old puss buckets foist as much damage as they can on We The People and then they assume room temperature.

    • DEVIL? Yep, you nailed it. The Lautenberg, and others like him, have cast their lot with darkness, because they believe that’s the side that will win.

      You. You. And YOU: your job is to prove him WRONG. Our side has goodness, mercy and compassion as tools; theirs, manipulation and subterfuge. NEVER stoop the their tactics. As long as we don’t, we win eventually.

  4. “Require a background check to purchase black powder, black powder substitute, smokeless powder, or any other explosive, in any quantity.”

    So, being somewhat skeptical of Senator Lautenberg’s intentions, he would include ammunition in his bill as it is somewhat explosive and powder could be removed from the casings and I suppose configured in some manner to create an explosive device. A backdoor ammo background check. Just sayin.

  5. Make it illegal to manufacture homemade explosives without a permit

    They’re trying to ban Tannerite too it seems. And I wonder if this bill will apply to matches too? They work just fine in pipe bombs, and the US Army Improvised Munitions Handbook shows how you can use them to reload primers and cartridges.

    • Isn’t that a gem? So if I want to make my own black powder at home — kind of like the Founders might have made for their muskets during the Revolution — I need a permit.

      Well I’ll say one thing. This will finally shut up all those people who say the Second Amendment only applies to the muskets and black powder that were in use at the time that the Framers wrote the Second Amendment.

      Just how far back in time, technology, and precursor items are these morons going to go with their bans and permits?

      • A certain Feinstein from California really doesn’t like those bayonet things. That’s getting close to downright ancient.

        • I want to know how many people have been killed with bayonets in the past decade. I can just see a bunch of gang bangers running around with guns with bayonets trying to stab each other. Of course they have to hold the bayonet sideways. It’s cool like dat.

      • ” This will finally shut up all those people who say the Second Amendment only applies to the muskets and black powder that were in use at the time that the Framers wrote the Second Amendment.”

        EXACTLY. Need proof we’re winning? Look no further. Watch the hatred, act in good faith WE WIN.

  6. I bet this will include those 9mm by 19mm brass containers that I hope to eventually buy at wall-mart again that each have 115 grain lids on them.

    • Remember the anti-Hitler partisand in Europe. They invented guns that could be made in any modest machine shop. Remember the skilled Pakistani gunsmiths who can duplicate virtually ANY small arms in a machine shop.

      We CANNOT be stopped, except my ourselves. You ARE your own limitations.

  7. Dang it. I just heard about this from another source and was in the process of contacting TTAG to notify them about it.

  8. “It is outrageous that anyone, even a known terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosives without any questions asked,” said Senator Lautenberg.

    What is outrageous is that our government let’s known terrorists walk around in the U.S. And because of their inability or lack of desire to capture known terrorists, all law abiding citizens are supposed to jump through hoops and give up liberty? I don’t think so.

    • Those “terrorists” you refer to are allowed to ply their trade exist because they serve the purposes of the Militarty/Intelligence complex.

      Here is the Hegelian Dialectic at work: PROBLEM/REACTION/SOLUTION.
      THEY provide the problem; YOU provide the reaction. The “solution” is determined beforehand: OPPRESSION.

      DON’T take the bait; recognize it for what it is. They can’t implement their solution, if we only recognize what we’re being led into.

  9. “Press release from Senator Lautenberg’s office confirming Nick’s initial concerns expressed just minutes after the Boston Marathon bomb attack.”

    That’s like predicting the sun will rise tomorrow…

    • I don’t have an excuse other than I believed it was a lost cause in this state but after seeing all the gun owners band together I will be doing my part when voting time comes.

  10. Gonna steam that family dinner? are you, bunky? Don’t even think about it…just step away from the cooker & put your hands up. We knows a teorist when we sees ones, Randy

    • That is a good point. All you need is a residential natural gas hookup, some tanks, and the right adapter. These people are just pros at missing the point. Bad people will always do bad things, no matter what you try to do to prevent them beforehand. Events like Newtown are probably solvable within the first few minutes with freedom in place. This one… would probably just happen no matter what. Unless of course we had followed the man’s advice about entangling alliances. If you follow the chain back that far and cut that one link, the last century of mass murder probably would have turned out a lot different. Still be plenty of mass murder, but I would say much less.

  11. These nanny statists just love to prohibit things.

    If they want to prohibit something that will save a LOT of lives and isn’t being effectively controlled, why aren’t they trying to prohibit the sale and purchase of alcohol again to prevent drunk driving?

    Oh, that’s right; that was tried and it didn’t work.

    Gee, do I see a parallel here?

    • HI-DI-HEY. Any guesses as to what control freaks like to do, and do best?

      Gun control: redundant phrase: CONTROL.

      CONTROL.

      CONTROL.

  12. I thought the Zombie theme was finally over…and there you go posting another zombie picture. Just let that fad die TTAG.

  13. There’s that “common-sense” phrase again.

    When will these schmucks realize that if something were so “common-sense” and intuitive some laws would have been enacted long, long ago?

    We’ve gotten along fairly well for the past 250 odd years having access to gun powder and up-to-date small arms, why do these bastards think banning anything is suddenly common sense?

  14. VIDEO DELETED – Nothing personal or editorial. Embedded videos in WP screw-up some mobile browsers.

    • Not sure if this is fixable, but I posted a link, not an embed code, but it automatically embeds it. Links are fine with me.

  15. Senator Lautenberg wouldn’t happen to have two male staffers, sons, or grandsons that are in their twenties or so and like taking walks wearing baseball caps and backpacks, would he?

  16. Gee. I seem to recall Nick posting a warning about this — and getting hooted down for it.

    It didn’t take long for him to look like a prophet, did it?

    • I just didn’t want to give them any ideas, after all, it seems very difficult for them to come up with an original idea.

      Hmmm, can anyone say straw sales? Firearms have serial numbers, how are they planning to track powder?

      Before too long we’ll need background checks and government approval to leave the house, let alone purchase anything.

      • It’s NOT that they simply stick with the game plan: THEY KNOW WHAT WORKS.

        Turn it on its head, and you can make it work against them.

        If it works for them, it can work for us. It’s much harder, because they control the narrative, but we CAN make their strategy work against them!

  17. Liberals legislating with emotion. At this rate, every household chemical will be subject to a background check.

  18. There goes firecrackers and fireworks…as a kid I would empty all the powder into a container and $(/&;? %*+^~ it. It went boom.

  19. Does he have any clue how many easily acquired substances explode? Gunpowder, fertilizer, match heads, stump remover, volatile cleaning agents, gasoline, rocket engine powder, flash powder, anything that contains perchlorates, acetone peroxide, potassium chlorate, nitrogen trichloride, the list goes on and on! And those chemicals are just the ones that I learned in my basic, freshman chemistry course. Lets just say, they cause “highly exothermic, spontaneous” reactions when ignited. Any determined person can find a much more exhaustive list online.

    Of course, the purpose of this legislation is not to stop bombings. The purpose of this is as a backdoor regulation of ammunition. It contains gunpowder, and he wants background checks when you buy it. Which will raise the price, and of course, if the bill requires recording of sales, then they will be able to look at the nicely compiled list and see every caliber that you have ever purchased. You don’t really need gun registration if you know that someone is regularly buying cases of 5.56.

  20. Get ready for an executive order to mandate background checks for the purchase of pressure cookers. We must be safe at all cost. Otherwise, they might have to do what they were elected to.

  21. In Lautenberg’s bill:
    Provide the Attorney General with the authority to stop the sale of explosives when a background check reveals that the applicant is a known or suspected terrorist and the Attorney General reasonably believes that the person may use the explosives in connection with terrorism …

    So the Attorney General can simply declare anyone a suspected terrorist — people like veterans returning from Afghanistan, people who read Bibles, people who are Constitutional fundamentalists, and still more groups that the Department of Homeland Security recently described as likely domestic terrorists — and voila, no more gun powder for you.

    Well if you are going to trample on the Second Amendment, you might as well trample on the Fourth Amendment right to due process as well. It’s like the pearl of wisdom I heard regarding armed robbery. You face the same prison time for armed robbery whether you try to steal $20 from a convenience store or $8,000 from a local auto parts store: of course you go for the local auto parts store.

  22. WTF is next. We all know there are plenty of ways to make a bomb without gun powder. If this passes, even though I haven’t seen it yet, I am sure it will be a major pain in the ass and probably costly to those of us who reload and it will not in anyway stop a terrorist. It may change their choice of explosive.

    Reloading components are hard enough to get right now. This will just make it worse. Fortunately I have about a year and a half worth of powder but that is not forever.

    FOAD

    • Well, just like semi-auto rifles were rebranded as weapons of war by the Left, now reloading components and household chemicals will be rebranded as “explosives.” First they asked why we needed weapons of war, but they failed to take them away this round. But surely, SURELY, no one can possibly defend the sale of explosives, right? They’ll be telling us that ANYONE who wants to buy gun powder must be some sort of domestic terrorist.

  23. I kinda threw up a little bit when I read the words, “we must put these COMMON SENSE safeguards in place”. God save us from (democrat’s) “common sense”!

  24. I had a chemistry set when I was six and made my own black powder. It’s really easy to do. This guy Lautenberg has the brain of a dinosaur.

  25. I saw this on another blog:

    “Why not just write a bill regulating oxygen.

    Without oxygen, black powder can’t burn.

    What morons!”

  26. Congress will react quickly to require background checks on anyone wanting to purchase a pressure cooker! Moms demand actions!

    Bunch of knee-jerk, out of touch, a-holes.

  27. I believe the even the ATF considers smokeless power a “propellant” and not an explosive. There are so many things that can go boom, you cannot ban them all. If you wanted a really big boom, there are way more efficient ways than black powder.

    The sooner this guy is toes up, the better for us all.

  28. I have the great misfortune of residing in Massachusetts with no means of escape. Massholes need to produce a firearms permit to purchase black powber and bl substitute. YAWN

  29. I’m very concerned about the future of pressure cookers — mine specifically. It is old –thus, it is not registered. That’s going to be a felony. I hope my husband doesn’t turn me in. What if the FBI, CIA, KGB, IRS, BO or MO, or someone finds out I have it? Will they confiscate it? and all my vegies will never get canned again?

  30. If you went to high school with Jesus and hid from dinosaurs, you are far too old to be making laws.

    Please retire Old Man Winter.

  31. Totally expected. Let’s not wait to see what the explosive materials were. I am betting that the materials were some variant of chlorite, either potassium or sodium, mixed with sugar. These materials have around 75-80% the explosive force of TNT. Will we need a background check to purchase commercial “ice melt.”

  32. Of course it is pure coincidence that he manages to propose this on the anniversary of the order by Governor Gage in 1775 with similar intent.

  33. Since 1946, the USG using the US military or foreign proxies has mass murdered more innocent civilians with bombs than any other country.

    • Yes, a good resource for information regarding deadly governments is “Death By Government”, by R. J. Rummel.

  34. so millions of dollars of taxpayers money will be used for a program that wont do anything. awesome. background checks on powder so every 10 years when someone tries this bombing stuff they have to use fertilizer instead of powder. doesn’t seem that effective.

  35. I guess they’ll ban matches, flour, urine, cleaning products, and most household products. All in the name of safety.

    Sorry, I do not need mommy and daddy telling me what to do.

  36. Oh Jesus Christ. I just got done reloading 100 rounds of match .223 and 100 rounds of match .308 for this weekend.

    Does this tragic circus of assclowns realize that every one of the thousands of fuels you can buy over the counter are no more or less dangerous than gunpowder?

  37. Im thinking with this we will have to go back to full service gas stations. The attendants will be highly trained and citizens will not be allowed out of their vehicle while fuel is being pumped. Fuel pumped in to canisters for non motor vehicle use will require filling out logs much like when buying sudafed. Its for the children!!!

    • Oh and locking gas caps will have to be installed on all motor vehicles that only the highly trained gas attendants have keys to, oh and AAA of course.

      ETA: Its common sense!

  38. And meanwhile, you can go to any farm store and buy 100 Lb bags of Urea (46-0-0) with no background check at all. Makes sense to me.

  39. Mail your congress person a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook with note appended: “And you expect a background check to buy ammunition reloading supplies will accomplish what exactly?”

  40. Damn. Have to go back to making my own nitrocellulose explosives. Have to get me some gold cleaner, drain cleaner and old dish towels…

    Note to self: any doomsday weapons I fabricate shall employ wiring of uniform, colour, size and type.

    “Cut the blue wire…”

    “They’re ALL blue!”

    >;{)>

  41. So now congress is trying to get both the gun and fireworks people pissed off at it. If this becomes anything more serious than just the rantings of an old (albeit very powerful) man, we need to get some outreach going to the fireworks hobbyists. This screws both of us over severely, and all of us hate the ATF with a passion so we should at least have some common ground.

  42. Lautenberg’s bill has a snowball’s chance in hell after the Senate rejected all of Obama’s wish list for gun control. While I’ll contact my Senators and Congressmen to oppose this bill, I’m not worried about it. There’s not enough outrage or calls to “do something” like there was after Newtown. I doubt it will even make it past committee.

    • I would contact my Senators, but guess who one of them is?

      That’s right, I’ve got the Crypt Keeper (pictured above), and the other is Porky the Pig.

  43. “…any other explosive, in any quantity;”

    The list of things that will burn or explode is virtually endless. Maybe, a big maybe, if he had specified gun powder there’d be a chance in hell of this getting somewhere but ANY explosive…?

    Black powder.
    Smokeless powder.
    Any ammunition for that matter.
    Tannerite.
    Any and all fireworks.
    Gasoline and diesel fuel.
    Lighter fluid.
    Matches.
    Propane and kerosene.
    Spray deodorant.
    Hair spray.
    Cooking oils or greases.
    Alcohol.
    Paint mixers, for that matter aluminum shavings and iron oxide (used in paint colors)

    Not to mention the components to make all of these will presumably be regulated or at least red flagged as well. Imagine; buying gasoline and styrofoam cups in the same day will get you investigated by the ATF. Buying a suspicious amount of galvanized steel pipe will earn you an “audit” from DHS. “You want to bake muffins with that sugar and corn meal?” says the friendly ATF agent. “I think you want to make a moonshine bomb”

    Sorry. I don’t normally have energy drinks in the morning…

    • You forgot fertilizer.

      I’ll bet right now there are a lot of people in Boston who wished they had guns with a Chechnyan (?) terrorist running around, maybe with grenades and full-auto AK. I wonder if he only has 7 rounds in his 30 round magazines? Hell, maybe they’re just disgruntled gun owners.

      Methinks, as law-abiding gun owners, we deserve an apology. but good luck with that.

  44. “It is outrageous that anyone, even a known terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosives without any questions asked.”

    Well, I have a question to ask: What the hell is a known terrorist doing walking around free in America?

  45. I see a lot of humorous comments here but I don’t see a lot from people who know what this means for shooters like myself who shoot commercial AND handloaded ammunition. Reloading is somewhat cheaper and produces custom-loaded rounds that deliver better accuracy and purpose-tailored performance.
    This is another gun control issue and should be treated with scorn by shooters just like the previous effort.
    Gunpowder is not an explosive, it is a propellant, like the fuel in the SRB’s on the Space Shuttle. It does not explode, it burns. Blackpowder is an explosive, but I got news for Laudenumberg–millions of American sportsmen hunt and target and competition-shoot blackpowder firearms. I myself have an 1861 .44 Colt Navy cap-and-ball blackpowder pistol.
    This is no laughing matter. They know there are hundreds of thousands of gun owners who haven’t bought any new guns or commercial ammunition in years, so there are no 4473’s on file on these guys. NICS is de facto gun registration because the dealer must kepp them for at least 20 years and surrender them without warrant to ATF, FBI, or others, upon demand for “inspection.” Instituting a gunpowder background check will create a NEW database of gun owners and more de facto registration.
    A lot of this ammo hoarding and reloading panic buying is precisely because of stuff like this…get it now before they start making you sign for it. BUY BUY BUY until the laws hit, then lay low.
    Big Brother IS watching.

    • Steve. Please don’t start a run on powder now. It’s already hard to get and it’ll probably triple in price. But, if you must buy some, use cash….no name.

  46. Seriously? Now I’d have to pay for yet another background check for my freakin’ reloading supplies… Oh, and that would mean I can’t order them through Brownell’s, Midway, or Cabela’s but have to get raped purchasing from local shops. Awesome.

  47. I can see background check on spray paint, pool supply, kitchen appliance, auto parts, soda can… I can see a long line at lowes becuz they sell alot of stuff that can make a weapon, hmmmm. I got idea, how about ban human then we won’t have this problem. Cuz this is not new, it’s been going around since idk? Kain and able? If u not religion type person, well let just go back to 6000 years. I just don’t think they r stupid enough to think banning or restrict things will keep criminal to stop doing what they do best

  48. I can see background check on spray paint, pool supply, kitchen appliance, auto parts, soda can… I can see a long line at lowes becuz they sell alot of stuff that can make a weapon, hmmmm. I got idea, how about ban human then we won’t have this problem. Cuz this is not new, it’s been going around since idk? Kain and able? If u not religion type person, well let just go back to 6000 years. I just don’t think they r stupid enough to think banning or restrict things will keep criminal to stop doing what they do best.

  49. Okay – I just made a cloud in the kitchen… charcoal, sulfer, saltpeter… mixed in the correct quantities… OH WAIT!… They’re the G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T… they can outlaw basic chemistry along with everything else, sorry- I forgot.

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