Governor Bevin Explains Gun Control vs Cultural Issues

Governor Matthew Griswold Bevin is an American businessman and politician serving as the 62nd and current Governor of Kentucky since 2015. He is the third Republican elected Governor of Kentucky since World War II.

Gov Bevin challenges Evan Davies on Gun Control vs Cultural Issues

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hi my name is Evan Davies and I'm just

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an independent consultant I'm not

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affiliated with a organization

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I really admire the work that you're

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doing to help foster children and you've

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said a number of times that you know the

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children's lives is most important we

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had a murder a little while ago where

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seventeen people including eight kids

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were murdered in their schools and how

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do you reconcile the children's lives

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are most important with the comments

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you've made to the media about it's

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naive and premature to talk about gun

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control and that it's culture and not

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guns that is causing these these

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horrible things I'll tell you exactly

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how I reconcile that first of all month

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ago in Kentucky we had this very similar

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situation made a very concerted effort

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to make sure that we removed the media

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circus from the healing process so

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within 24 to 48 hours you've probably

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not even aware of most people aren't

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that I had a 15 year old come into a

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school in Kentucky last month and shoot

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16 children at point-blank range two of

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whom died a set of twins were both shot

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and taken to a level 1 trauma center

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they lived this is very real to me I've

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sat with these families you also

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probably are not aware of the fact that

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I've buried my oldest child died under

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different circumstances but went to

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school and didn't come home she was 17

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years old I know exactly not exactly

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it's not possible to know exactly what

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another person's going through but I

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know exactly what it feels like to bury

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your oldest child I know what the impact

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is on a family I don't come at this with

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a sense of sympathy but empathy the

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point that I've made that's been largely

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misconstrued

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I'll reaffirm with you and tell you

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exactly why it comes from where it comes

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from this idea just as solving this

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issue is able to be solved with a single

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law or rule or change is naive and

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delusional and so we shouldn't allow

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ourselves to entertain naive and

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delusional thoughts it is part of a

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broader construct just as this issue is

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and the point that I made that I'll

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reiterate is that if we think that

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part of what we are seeing is not a

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cultural problem we're kidding ourselves

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and the point that I've made is this

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what has shifted in the last 10 20 30 40

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50 years it's not the percentage of guns

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that we find in homes and you can give

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me a statistic at that there's now more

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guns fair enough I'll submit that that

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may be true I'm not gonna argue with you

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but the reality is there's fewer homes

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that have guns in them than there were

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50 years ago when children didn't walk

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into schools and shoot themselves and

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shoot each other that's a fact you can

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confirm that but I'll tell you this when

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I was a kid kids brought guns to school

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kids brought guns on the school bus kids

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brought guns to school in their own

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vehicles it didn't shoot each other with

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so some things have not changed what has

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changed we as a culture as a society and

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it's very germane to this topic as well

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we don't value human life like we did we

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remove increasingly respect for the

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dignity of other people you look at how

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rampant pornography is the degradation

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and disrespect for women and for human

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life in general it is so systemic people

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of our age have not been exposed like

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our children have been there's not a

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child in America that hasn't been

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exposed to pornography I guarantee you

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if they're above the age of 12 that's a

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fact

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it is so systemic it's horrific and it

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desensitizes us at every turn

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and so we're desensitized to the value

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and dignity of human life we're

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desensitized through and this is to the

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heart of what I said that you seem to

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take exception with is that through

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violent video games where literally you

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are encouraged you can roll your eyes

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all you want man but I will say this

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you've explained to me the value of a

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game that encourages somebody to go back

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and finish him off where you get points

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for four kill counts and you slaughter

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people

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we're desensitizing people to the value

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of life and we see it through the lyrics

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and music and we see it through

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television shows we see it through

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movies we see it in the fact that the

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mores of this nation

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have changed we see it through the fact

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that we increasingly want to remove any

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sense of moral authority from everything

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here's I'll tell you again this we could

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have a thousand sidebars and you could

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agree or disagree as it relates to what

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I'm about to say but in a nation where

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over the last 40 years we've aborted

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50-something million children and we

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have multiple states with medically

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assisted suicide being provided by

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doctors at both ends of a life spectrum

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we're losing the value for life that we

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once historically had you can say that's

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good you could say it's bad but it's a

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reality you couple that with the fact

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that all these other things are changing

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that we're removing any sense of

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authority it used to be that you had

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different levels of authority starting

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in the home itself only a third of

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children in a recent Pew study say that

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they have no interaction for all intents

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and purposes with their own parents when

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their parents live in the home they say

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their parents have no clue what they're

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even learning in school there was a

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study recently in an article that was

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derived from that and other studies it

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was in the Atlantic encourage you to

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look it up about the impact and you can

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smart and you can smile but if somebody

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who's an independent consultant I find

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it remarkable that you're so smug and

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you're so disregarding of my opinion

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when in fact I'm just trying to have an

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honest dialogue with you based on a fair

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question but but I will say this look at

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this article in the Atlantic this

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article in the Atlantic talks about how

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young people are increasingly becoming

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suicidal and depressed because of the

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use of social media in the use of these

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personal devices in on screen time all

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these are part of a cultural issue in

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this cultural issue if we're not

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addressing it we are kidding ourselves

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because it also affects this issue we

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came here to talk about today which is

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why these homes are broken why so many

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children are finding themselves in

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government care which is not the best

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solution the government should not be

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raising our children period it just

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shouldn't the fact of the matter is we

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need people in the position like I am

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and I had the same conversation less

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than an hour ago with the President of

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the United States and I said to him he

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should I should this whole room was full

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of cabinet secretaries and governors of

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other states those of us who that are in

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a position of influence and the ability

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to say something shame on us if we don't

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step up and call people to a higher

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authority and there will always be those

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including many in the media whoever the

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messengerís they're gonna find the

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imperfection in that messenger so if the

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messenger says we should do XYZ as it

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relates to this issue or adoption of

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foster care

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people will say well who is this person

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they're an imperfect person well so is

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every one of us there's not a perfect

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person in America but that doesn't mean

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we don't strive for perfection there's

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not a perfectly morally upright person

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in America that doesn't mean we don't

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espouse in a spire to reach for moral

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higher authority and expect more and

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demand more of our children shame on us

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if we don't sound the alarm you want to

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take any kind of morality and change the

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mores of a nation remove any sense of

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higher responsibility try to pin it on

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any one thing and assume the government

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and a piece of regulation the rule is

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the solution and then we're shocked when

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these things happen we're kidding

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ourselves

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yes sir