Karl Pierson is shown in a Facebook photo (courtesy denverpost.com)

“The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him,” denverpost.com reports, obliquely enough. “‘He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff,’ said junior Abbey Skoda, who was in a class with Pierson during her freshman year. ‘I also heard he was bullied a lot.'” Hello? Those beliefs were . . . ? Finally, in paragraph 15, the Post reveals Pierson’s political perspective . . .

In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith, who through his invisible-hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as “Keynesian.”

“I was wondering to all the neoclassicals and neoliberals, why isn’t the market correcting itself?” he wrote. “If the invisible hand is so strong, shouldn’t it be able to overpower regulations?”

Yes, yes. What about guns? Here’s the relevant info on Pierson’s now-wiped Facebook page:

Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing “you republicans are so cute” and posting an image that reads: “The Republican Party: Health Care: Let ’em Die, Climate Change: Let ’em Die, Gun Violence: Let ’em Die, Women’s Rights: Let ’em Die, More War: Let ’em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?”

Carl Schmidt and Brendon Mendelson, both seniors at Arapahoe High, knew Pierson. They said he had political views that were “outside the mainstream,” but they did not elaborate.

Turns out that the Post edited out some important information in that regard. mediaite.com caught this one:

The gunman’s parents divorced in late 2011, according to court records. The divorce was finalized in August 2012.

Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with the gunman, described him as a very opinionated Socialist.

“He was exuberant I guess,” Conrad said. “A lot of people picked on him, but it didn’t seem to bother him.”

I wonder if the mainstream media would have been this quiet about Pierson’s belief system if he’d been staunchly pro-gun rights and Republican-leaning. Somehow I doubt it. [h/t geoffb]

104 COMMENTS

  1. There is no doubt. It would be front page news. As it is, all they will say (at least on CBS radio news) is that he was “religious” and attended bible school. End of story, you will never hear about him again from the liberal media.

    • I read a report somewhere that a student said she heard three shots, so unless he reloaded before he shot himself it wasn’t a “Double Barrel Joe” special.

      • What use does it have? Do we hear about other shooters being “capatalist”? Sounds foolish, doesn’t it?

        • I’ve read news reports that pegged the perpetrator as “right wing”, “Tea Party members”, etc only for it to be removed from the articles when it’s found later that the individual held widely known views to the opposite. It is a fact that if the background information doesn’t fit the agenda driven narrative of some media outlets, it gets edited without the new information replacing the old. Those parts of the stories go down the memory hole. You, Hannibal, and others don’t get to read them so that you can believe that they never existed. I, and others, have seen it with our own eyes.

        • Going to this extreme to label an 18 year old kid as an anti-gun socialist makes 2A supporters look stupid and simply inflames the debate. Come on people, we are smarter than this. At least I hope we are.

        • There have been sevral attempts to associate shooters with the Tea Party. All have failed because the shooters were not associated with the Tea Party.

          Nearly all the school shooters were either registered Democrats or the parents were Democrats.

          It is not too hard to understand why the ideological spectrum of mass shooters leans so far to the left. Leftists are much less happy than conservatives. Every study confirms this. You have to be quite unhappy to be a mass shooter.

          Here is a paper on:

          The Motivations of Political Leftists

          http://tongue-tied2.blogspot.com/2006/06/what-appears-below-is-attempt-to.html

  2. Good post rf.

    I would wonder if the mentality of many anti 2a folks is,

    “The gov needs to control me and everyone else because I donnot believe people possess the self control to be around firearms and avoid hurting themselves or others.”

        • I am starting to believe this. I think it’s ‘i do not have the self control, therefore nobody does’ I believe they truly believe they are the most logical and rational person and if they can’t control themselves nobody would be able to

        • The kind of people that will drink martinis and cower in their homes while others fight and die for their freedom. It’s eternal. Always has been always will be.

    • I think it’s more like “The gov needs to control me and everyone else because… Guns. I feel it’s true.”

    • There are gun owners that believe that also… they usually start off with “I support the 2A but…” or “I support the RKBA but…”. The only substantial difference is that those gun owners only want the government to control others and not them. 😉

    • Yep; all of the gun grabbers I’ve debated; after I have shown their so called logic has no basis in fact; have admitted the real reason they want guns outlawed is because they don’t trust themselves with a gun in hand.

      Actually; I think they are right; every mass shooter that I’ve read about have been liberal/progressive in their belief system, like this murderer.

      • This not trusting one’s self with a gun bothers me. Have you ever stabbed someone during an argument, storming to the kitchen to get the big knife? In school, did you ever whack someone over the head with an obscenely large textbook (which I found out the hard way will give a damn good wallop)? Did you throw a desk at the professor or student that disagreed with you, or use a sledgehammer on a coworker, or anything similar? No? Then congratulations, you’re probably not going to start just because you have some polymer and steel in the shape of a gun.

    • It’s a rather common “feature” of the human psyche; we project our weaknesses on everyone else. That’s why so many anti-gunners have poor impulse control or tempers (see: every “You NRA guys SHOULD HAVE YOUR CHILDREN SACRIFICED IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES WHILE RATS EAT YOUR WIFE AND SOLDIER ANTS EAT OUT YOUR EYES YOU VIOLENT (*)@&)*($#ERS!!!!” post ever).

      At the risk of offending people, you see it quite often in other situations as well. St. Augustine was rather…let’s just say “anti sexuality”, and it was because pre-conversion he was a horndog. He couldn’t keep it under control, so he assumed no one else could either. You see the same thing with ex-drug addicts pushing the war on drugs, or every time you see a prominent anti-gay pastor or political commentator caught screwing some dude.

      Much of the moralizing (not actual morality or education, but moralizing) I got thrown at me as a kid boiled down to “You shouldn’t do _____ because way back when I did and couldn’t control myself so you can’t either”.

  3. Most people live in their own sphere. They base their beliefs on those experiances within their own sphere. For example, the Upper West Side progressives in Manhatten (with their secured, gaurded apartments and their door men) have no idea of the troubles arcoss the East River in parts of the Bronx (forget about living in a rural area, there isn’t a clue unless you consider The Hamptons rural) and can’t fathom the cops not showing up at the first sniff of trouble.

    I believe that the same can be said for many of their false notions on gun ownership. They believe that people can “just snap” if they own a gun because they can see themselves “just snapping” and are afraid of what would happen if a gun was nearby. They believe everyone is like this because that’s how they are in their little sphere. To point out that there is something wrong with their sphere is to point out that there is something wrong with them. If there is something wrong with them, their sphere might crack and their identity shattered. Thus is the problem with the self-identified “enlighted ones”.

    • NYC2AZ,

      I agree completely with everything you stated.

      And yet we are supposed to give up our rights so that Progressive civilian disarmament advocates can avoid facing the imperfections of their delicate psyche.

      It’s like a criminal who grabs your child and starts yelling, “I’m unstable. There is no telling what I might do if you don’t hurry up and hand over your cash. I don’t want to hurt your precious child. But I fear I cannot control myself.” And so we are supposed to hand over our cash along with a glass of milk and cookies to help the “poor criminal” calm down.

      I am rapidly approaching the point of telling those people to go screw themselves. I leave them alone. Why can’t they leave me alone?

      • A free people must force those types to leave them alone. That’s the part of the Second Amendment that reads, A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State. Those types won’t leave others alone unless the price of doing so is high enough. Right now, there’s very little incentive to keep those in our society who would have government micro-manage everyone’s life to the lowest level from constantly clamoring for the nanny state. As a group, they actually believe that the militia is a long dead institution of old and that the police and military would fire on Jesus Christ himself to save their dystopia. As long as they really believe those mistaken ‘assurances’, they will not leave people alone in their individual Liberty.

      • This is where I respect true libertarians despite our disagreements. A true libertarian is pro-liberty, PERIOD, not just pro-The Liberties That I Personally Value And Enjoy.

        I agree; I shouldn’t have to give up my tools of defense/offense just to shield some hot tempered ***hole’s fragile psyche. Neither should my LGBTQ friends have to give up their right to marry who they choose to shield some prude with poor self control’s fragile psyche, nor should my pot smoking friends (as much as I disapprove of their drug use) do federal time for smoking a weed to shield some 60’s wild-child-turned-stodgy-authoritarian-Dem/Repub from their lack of self-discipline either.

        • “LGBTQ”

          This identificator litterally blows my mind. I grew up in a coterie of non-conformists and rebels. Now, everyone wants to conform as a Lesbigayonanistqueertransimulator.

          Seems the only non-conformists on the nether side are people who yearn to have sex with ants and toad-frogs! God bless ’em! 😉

            • Other than your confusing “love lives” with sexual obsessive self-gratification, you mean? Love and sex are entirely different matters. Often associated via ignorance, the two are not synonymous, Rich.

              You don’t have my vote, not yet.

        • That’s a lot o’ words! 😉 I’m a Radical Libertarian Loon™, and sometimes I confuse people because I’m a pro-gun pothead. I also believe that God created evolution, so I confuse people on both sides of that gap as well.

          I guess you could say I’m a purist anarchist, which simply means that each person is sovereign over her or his own life and doesn’t _need_ anyone telling them what to do and what not to do. True Free Will is inherently compassionate, and does no harm by its very nature. Free will and God’s Will are one and the same.

    • It’s a manifestation of projection. They believe that they will “snap” so that belief gets projected onto others.

    • Exactly. Rule one in the socialist playbook – do not give your political opponents the ability, or the tools, to fight against your utopian vision.

  4. Given the shooter’s political views, this story will be quickly dropped by the media – it doesn’t “fit the narrative”. Just like the black LA ex-cop (Christopher Dorner) who was shooting members of the LAPD in revenge. His “manifesto” included the following anti-gun rant:

    “If you had a well regulated AWB [assault weapon ban] , this would not happen. The time is now to reinstitute a ban that will save lives. Why does any sportsman need a 30 round magazine for hunting? Why does anyone need a suppressor? Why does anyone need a AR15 rifle? This is the same small arms weapons system utilized in eradicating Al Qaeda, Taliban, and every enemy combatant since the Vietnam war. Don’t give me that crap that its not a select fire or full auto rifle like the DoD uses. That’s bullshit because troops who carry the M-4/M-16 weapon system for combat ops outside the wire rarely utilize the select fire function when in contact with enemy combatants. The use of select fire probably isn’t even 1% in combat. So in essence, the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle is the same as the M-4/M-16. …. In the end, I hope that you will realize that the small arms I utilize should not be accessed with the ease that I obtained them. Who in there right mind needs a f***ing silencer!!! who needs a freaking SBR AR15? No one. No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook. Whether by executive order or thru a bi-partisan congress an assault weapons ban needs to be re-instituted. Period!!! Mia Farrow said it best. “Gun control is no longer debatable, it’s not a conversation, its a moral mandate.” Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB.”

    Want to guess how many “mainstream” media outlets published that part of Dorner’s rant? Zero. and they dropped the story VERY quickly when this “manifesto” came out. Hey, ain’t no bias in the media.

  5. This kid was obviously disturbed, so I really don’t see a purpose in trying to correlate his political views to his act of violence. Sorry, but this type of “news” is below the cuff from what I’ve learned to expect from TTAG.

      • And if it is so insignificant, then why did Denver Post stealth edit and changed the already-widely-reported “socialist” descriptor to “Keynesian”?

      • If it was just to poke at a troubled kid who killed himself, then it would be cheap.
        But in this case TTAG is giving us information we probably wouldn’t have otherwise had, documenting it for future reference, and probably demonstrating a bias in the mainstream media.

        • No “probable” about it; broadcast and print news is almost completely biased against the reporting of positive uses of a gun in self-defense situations.

          The local press will report a positive use of a gun; but it won’t be reported nationally; where as a negative use of a gun is instant front page head lines across the country.

    • “This kid was obviously disturbed, so I really don’t see a purpose in trying to correlate his political views to his act of violence.”

      For the very simple reason that opposition to his political views from his peers and his obvious inability to effectively debate indefensible utopian ideals with them or in class is undoubtedly what frustrated and disturbed him and led to the violence. There is a direct correlation.

      • “Undoubtedly”? A couple kids claim he was picked on for his political jabbering, so that must be the motive? Even though he was reportedly looking for a specific teacher, not other students? For all we know, he was having an affair with that teacher, or had a Charles Whitman-style brain lesion, or had a reaction to mind-altering prescription drugs, or
        any of a hundred other reasons. Be careful jumping to conclusions, especially concerning the motives of dead nutjobs…

        • The reports so far suggest he was pissed at the teacher (the Debate coach) for kicking him off the team.

          Apparently he was kicked out for…. threatening the teacher.

        • I haven’t heard any word one way or the other on whether he was a wannabe spree killer who was stopped by an armed responsible person, or if he just had the two rounds, wasted one, and “gave up” on his own, or if anybody even knows or is speculating. I wonder if we’ll ever know, or if anybody else cares..

    • Not sure so about that. The timing is suspect. Maybe this disturbed individual decided to end his life by making a political statement about gun control, or lack thereof, at a school.

    • Well, the MSM never fails to try to pin these things on “conservatives” or the “Tea Party” or some other left-wing boogieman.

      IMO, after the number of times that the press has spread this type of bald-faced lie, it is only fair to turn their tactic back on them. If liberals find it “low class,” well, you might want to look to those who started the game with their blood libels and demand that they quit jumping to pre-determined conclusions in trying to pin these events on their political enemies.

    • There’s always a shiny new issue of Gun’s N’ Ammo. Every gun runs 100%, and Dick Metcalf is no longer around to give any troubling political commentary.

  6. the only cherry on this sundae would be if he had a shrine replete with pics and articles about Shannon Watts in his room . . . . . (hey, maybe this is the guy who was driving up the ebay auctions on the framed pics of her for sale?)

  7. It doesn’t suprise me.Chris Dorner was a staunch Democrat too.

    It would seem if we are to go down the dark rabbit hole of passing laws to protect society, the first Law is that all Democrats and Socialists should immediately surrender arms.

  8. Denver Post did a stealth edit and changed the already-widely-reported “socialist” descriptor to “Keynesian.”

    Soon Denver Post will stealth edit that he was, in fact, a sweaty-toothed Tea Partier who hated blacks and Obama.

  9. Perhaps Mr. Burke is right in a way. The young lad may have chosen the Newtown anniversary to make a statement and give his suicide meaning.

    • This doesn’t really seem like a mass shooting. If the reports are to be believed, he was after a specific guy and he only fired at one or maybe two other students. I wonder if an inappropriate relationship is behind this whole thing. Does anyone know why he was after the librarian?

      • He was after Mr. Murphy, the librarian, because he (the shooter) had just been dismissed from the debate team about a week ago. Mr. Murphy is also the faculty head of the debate team. Contrary to what some interviewees are saying, Karl was not “such a nice kid.” He was a rather angry, sad individual. What people are saying on the media just goes to show that people did not know him.

        I know that his parents divorced around 2 years ago. There are a ton of factors that go into something awful like this, but it looks like his dismissal from the debate team was a major trigger. Hey, I’m not saying it makes sense…but it’s what happened.

  10. Whats that for the tally? I can’t think of a single non-libtard uber-socialist shooter. Every single one has been a dang government is always right screw the free market psychopath. Kid was probably off his crazy meds and had an acute case of affluenza.

  11. It would be all over the news right now he if he was a member of his high school’s young republicans chapter and if he had any connection whatsoever with the NRA. Remember how the cops found an NRA certificate showing the completion of a safety course in the lanza home and it was splashed all over the news? Never mind that getting one of those certificates is required by that state before you can even apply for a gun permit, the media just couldn’t help themselves. That fit their narrative and they ran with it. This doesn’t so it will be ignored.

    • Hell, it’s already “below the fold” on most papers and news outlets. Tomorrow it’ll be in front of the classifieds, and gone completely the next day.

      The Sandy Hook sh!tshow will run all week, I suspect.

  12. It is a shame if he was mocked though. One should never be mocked for their political views. During the period of 1930s – 1970s, socialism was the dominant view, and free-market proponents were mocked and even considered borderline radical. Milton Friedman, the late great free-market economist, was mocked and hated by many, but he always just got his points across through the force of his arguments. While I would think a socialist completely in Care Bear-land, I wouldn’t mock them, just try to show them where they were wrong.

    • Don’t fall for the socialist idealist propaganda. To support socialism is to support mass murder on a scale that makes the Nazis look like amateurs. Their is nothing good about socialism. It is just a cover for sociopaths to commit murder on a massive scale while impovershing the general population.

  13. Well his teacher called him a socialist. He described himself as a Keynesian. Maybe the editing out was simply for that reason?

    I highly doubt a HS student actually read Keynes (who was not a socialist). After all most Kernesians ignore what Keynes actually said (did you know he endoesed and said he agreed with Hayek’s Road to Serfdom?). Guess what Keynes says should be done when the economy is going well? Cut spending and pay off the debt acquired during a recession. Guess what he said to do doing a recession? Cut taxes and spend on capital projects (like road building).

    I think most Keynesians forget the cut tax part, and the cut spending/pay debt part. So he probably was a socialist. But Keynes wasn’t

    • I don’t see why anyone should care what his economic views were, except to score some kind of cheap point against “the other side.” Gun control views are a little more relevant.

      • I agree Hannibal. I do understand the impulse though. Anti-gunners continually use their “jump-to-conclusions mat” to justify their own percieved predjudices after every single shooting and the “news” almost always initially reports that it was some ccw-holding “pro-gun nut” NRA member. There is a natural human impulse to rub it in the face of the propagandists that the perpetrator (no matter how nuts), at some level, identified themselves as “one of their own”.

        I try to rise above that impulse during debates, but sometimes it needs to be pointed out that the reason why progs tend to be so afraid of guns is because they can easily see themselves in the shooters position.

    • The school is an open campus, like college. Kids can come and go at will. Want some Chipotle for lunch? Just head across the street. Don’t have a first period class? Sleep in and get here in time for second period.

  14. CSM did a “portrait” of the shooter and mentioned his strong opinion on gun rights… but they didn’t mention that he was apparently in favor of stricter gun control.
    Do ya’ll think this is an attempt to place blame on the RKBA community?

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1214/Karl-Pierson-Portrait-of-the-Arapahoe-High-School-shooting

    From the Denver Post

    “Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing “you republicans are so cute” and posting an image that reads: “The Republican Party: Health Care: Let ’em Die, Climate Change: Let ’em Die, Gun Violence: Let ’em Die, Women’s Rights: Let ’em Die, More War: Let ’em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?”

    Read more: Arapahoe High gunman held strong political beliefs, classmates said – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24721367/arapahoe-high-gunman-held-strong-political-beliefs-classmates#ixzz2nUF0CNY5
    Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
    Follow us: @Denverpost on Twitter | Denverpost on Facebook

    That this kid ended up in this situation is tragic and it’s even worse that he shot a 15 year old girl who just happened to be there, but I’m not willing to stay silent while blame for his actions is placed on us.

    • Fvck that. I don’t want a portrait of the perpetrator. I don’t need to know what his fricken favorite color is. I don’t want his name or his face plastered across the media. He does not deserve fame.

      The shooter’s family is going through hell right now. Give them space, and as much peace as an investigation of this magnitude is allowed to bring them. What is the media going to gain by camping outside of his mother’s home like so many vultures? We, the general public, can know the story and relevant details without glorifying this man’s awful deeds.

      I don’t want to know every fricken detail of the Sandy Hook shooter. His name and face deserve to be forgotten. If anything, I’d rather hear the stories of the heroism of those brave teachers and administrators who sought to protect innocent lives with everything that they had. Irregardless of whether or not you think those women should have been armed, I think it is without a doubt that they demonstrated bravery to the uttermost. Let’s celebrate that.

      /rant off/

      • The larger point I was making was that we shouldn’t let the media make it look like this shooter is one of “us.”

  15. Tragic and regrettable. At least we can all take solace in the fact that through self-selection he won’t be polluting the gene pool. The poor, deluded schmuck.

  16. I understand it’s quite ironic that the media, the mainstream media would want to cover up this young man’s politics however I have to say that I don’t think it was just politics itthat caused him to go on a shooting rampage. I think he had more emotional problems and political problems he could’ve been just as radically right as he was radical left. And regardless of this young man’s political views I think the teacher has some responsibility for controlling the bullying n the class. I am sad that he felt he felt this was his only solution to deal with his problems.

  17. I’m just going to get it out there: MIND CONTROL.

    I expect snarkiness I expect ridicule. But before you do, Google “MK-ULTRA” and “Operation Artichoke”.
    This stuff is old news by now.

    Whatever the government admits to publicly, they’re 30 years ahead of it in the real world. In the technology age, it’s 2043; what they can actually do would be mind-numbing to most.

  18. Little known fact; “Marxists” as a group are responsible for the majority of presidential assassinations, assassination attempts and assassination plots. Jared Loughner also had Marxist/Socialist views. The point is, the people who wants to disarm us (Socialists/Marxists/Communists) like Nancy Pleosi, Di-Fi, Dick Durbin etc belong to the very same ideological group as many of the people doing these mass and high profile shootings.

  19. Just came across this on Foxnews: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/15/colorado-teacher-praised-for-making-best-tactical-decision-during-shooting/

    “After that, Pierson set off one of the Molotov cocktails, setting at least three bookshelves on fire, investigators told KDVR.com. When an armed school resource officer entered the room, Pierson believed he was cornered and turned his gun on himself, Robinson said. The entire attack lasted approximately 80 seconds and was captured by security cameras. ”

    So it seems this could have been worst if it wasn’t for the ARMED school resource officer.

  20. So, yeah, this kid fancied himself a “Liberal Aggitator” to the extreme.

    By the way, where did he get the shotgun? Did another, irresponsible parent like Nancy Lanza create easy access to it?

    A lot of the school shootings are caused by poor parenting, but its so much easier to just blame the gun.

  21. Is it just me or am I the only one seeing a trend? Next, someone will propose banning anti-gun people from having guns. And this might seem like a reasonable first step but rights are for everyone, including your political enemies…

  22. No surprise here. All mass shooters are bullied, mentally ill or Socialist leaning radical Democrats and most often all three.

  23. I have developed a system (I call it the Ron Swanson Theory), whereby any aspiring politician can instantly gauge on which side of the political divide any individual sits. This is to shake the hand of that individual. If the grip is strong, the hand meaty and callused, the individual will be on the right side of the divide. If the flesh is flabby, the clammy skin as smooth as a streambed pebble, the owner will be on the left of that divide.

    The theory is that those who do manual labour resent mightily the power of the State to remove part of their income, to waste, line their own pockets, then donate the remainder to those too feckless to engage in useful work.

    The limp baby skinned hands belong to a different order, mainly city or town dwellers, who have yet to learn the value of physical work. They do not see the difference between the light duties imposed by office work, and the enfeeblement created by a welfare system.

    So, within minutes of entering a political debating forum, the politician should have a sufficient grasp of the views of the audience. Whatever they say, their lifestyle dictates what their political stance will be. The sad truth is that in our urbanized world, where industry has been largely sent offshore, and most now work in the sales and related areas, horny hands are becoming a rarity.

    Thus our political landscape shifts. Self reliance and standing up for yourself are becoming a thing of the past, a relic of the America that was. Labour saving devices and time wasting gadgets continue to advance this trending personal sloth.

    I dislike that I am echoing Henry Ford in these ideas. And yet some of what he said has come to pass.

    What is the future of the right with this in mind? A solid training in firearms is as good a method as any for restoring the vigor and strength of American youth. This follows Thomas Jeffeson’s advice. Your opinions?

    • I’m pretty sure that, like me, you will find so many exceptions to your earnest but harebrained theory, that you soon will abandon it altogether.

      Union people who work in auto plants – I could go on – DEMOCRATS. Many smooth-pawed folks – who may hold sales jobs, small-town newspaper jobs. Office workers: smooth paws.

      I like your effort, but I fear you are going to have to start again at square one. Because it’s totally wrong.

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