WEBVTT

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want to thank everybody for being here

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today it's awesome to see this turn

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out my name is mike sodini and

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i am the founder walk the talk

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america but before i begin i want

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to kind of tell you my origin

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story

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it began with nepotism i got my

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job in the firearms industry by working

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for my family and i didn't grow

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up around guns i grew up in

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san francisco and new jersey probably the

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two worst places to grow up if

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you're around guts right

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that helped me with what i do

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today and the reason why is because

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when i got into the firearms industry

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i was able to observe a lot

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and one of the things that i

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had noticed was that we did not

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address a lot of the negative outcomes

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of firearms and mostly that big

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cause it's used against us right but

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one of them was suicide

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i used to have a booth at

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shot show every year and we used

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to have these nice couches and i

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remember sitting with the president of my

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company one time and we started to

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notice that every year there'd be one

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less person that would come hang out

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with us when we tried to figure

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out where was that person

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we'd eventually find out that they took

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their life of the firearm and one

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of the things that we we we

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thought was strange is that we didn't

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talk about i really date myself here

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but there's a movie called twister right

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in that movie that they talked about

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enough five like a tornado and there's

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a scene where they say we don't

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talk about it at five and i

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f

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felt like our industry didn't want to

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talk about that

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so the story i'm about to tell

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you about the president of my company

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is very tragic

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what

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when you think about suicide you always

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think that there are signs that you

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need to look for things and i

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i want to caution everybody here that

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maybe that's not the case all the

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time and that's why it's so important

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that we we tackle this ourselves as

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the industry and we give tools and

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resources to our community people that are

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in going to a community president my

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company's name bill sro major and this

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is the guy i was telling you

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about that we sat and talked about

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suicide and we had a friend who

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took their own life and i remember

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bill saying to me suicide is the

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coward's way out

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so when somebody tells you that suicide

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is the coward's way out that's the

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last person you're going to think would

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take their own life

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bill took his own life with one

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of our firearms a stolen importer of

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the imported guns from all over the

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world and one day he had a

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bad day and he went to our

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office and he took his own life

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and i remember the day that it

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happened i had to catch a plane

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from

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from new jersey to las vegas and

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we are playing basketball and on my

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way out the door he said hey

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did you make your reservations everybody in

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this room knows about all the shows

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that the industry has whether it's distributor

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shows an array show shot show great

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outdoor show and i

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he said did you make your reservations

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for those and i said maybe and

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he's like i'm pissed at you make

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your reservations because if we're not stay

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in the same hotel together i'm going

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to kill you that's what he said

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to me so as i left him

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we were making plans for the future

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together

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he had a bad day something happened

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and he took his own life

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and it really messed me up and

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his funeral was like a who's who

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of the firearms industry

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some really big names a lot of

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people in the room know these names

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but we put them in the ground

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and nobody wrote about it nobody talked

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about it we just kept it moving

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right

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i live in vegas and everyone knows

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mandalay bay what happened horrible night he

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lost fifty nine people in that tragedy

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we lose seventy four people a day

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to suicide by fire

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we have a mandalay bay shooting more

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than the mandalay bay shooting every day

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it's not the guns fault

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but there is something we can do

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about it i'm gonna to tell you

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a brief story about my journey so

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when i first got into this

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i thought it was going to change

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the world stop mass shootings i remember

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reaching out to the mental health community

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to find out how we could work

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together and with the things we agree

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upon instead of getting caught up in

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the fight and i gotta be honest

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i kind of wanted a big farm

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on my way out of it i

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thought if i could just raise money

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from the firearms industry we could handle

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it

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headed over to behavioral health

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we'd be heroes when i realize that

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they don't have the answers

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i had to look inside of the

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community in the industry to figure out

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what we we can do and one

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of the things walk the talk america

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does is we offer free and anonymous

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mental health screenings and in the beginning

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i remember making a decision that i

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wanted to put

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free and anonymous mental health screenings in

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the boxes of all my manufacturer's firearms

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i represented four lines outside of the

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united states thank god i had foreign

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manufacturers because i'm not sure wouldn't let

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me put a free and anonymous mental

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health screening in the box but i

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remember having a conversation with my office

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she and i said i really want

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to do this because i want our

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customers to be able to check on

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themselves without fear of consequence

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and i gotta be honest i didn't

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know if the nssf was going to

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come after me i didn't know if

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the internet was going to get angry

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i didn't know if our customers are

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going to get angry that that was

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in there because you know when we

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think of guns and mental health we

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usually think people are coming after our

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rights and restriction but why

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one of the coolest things and the

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reason why i tell you this is

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because sometimes you gotta take a chance

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sometimes you gotta just do something

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it was completely opposite of what i

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thought could happen we were getting customers

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who are buying

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a bursae

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and saying i bought this gun and

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it it came with this card in

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the box that led to the free

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and anonymous mental health screenings and i

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just want to thank you we had

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people calling our office talking about suicide

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loss or what they went through we

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were not equipped to handle that

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we did not think that through right

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because we're not therapists or where a

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gun company

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but that's what really hit me that

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we need this for our community those

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are our customers those are our people

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those are the people that are in

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our community that we love that trust

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us with their life and their family's

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life when they purchase our products

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you can do something all of us

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can do something talking about it doesn't

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mean that you're going to inspire people

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to do it they're doing it

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and the firearms industry believe it or

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not can be the leaders in this

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space when it comes to suicide prevention

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and mental health we don't need any

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hero to save us we can do

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it ourselves and it starts by being

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creative there's somebody in the crowd right

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now in gala true with the armory

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project that i want to point out

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now that

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was so forward thinking that she had

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a group of of gun stores in

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louisiana to offer safe storage and the

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the issue that a lot of stores

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had was the liability of giving a

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gun back too soon you know i

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don't want to take that on what

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if somebody does something horrific well there's

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an option

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skull and gala was like i'm going

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to go around it and she goes

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out and makes legislation that removes that

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penalty to a gun shop if they

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do give the gun back to sued

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for trying to do the right thing

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so i want to leave you with

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don't let data don't let your fear

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let your legal i know larry's probably

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like what

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don't let your legal get in the

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way of saving a life because these

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are our people are our customers with

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our product and we can help them

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so thank you for showing up today

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and hearing all of our stores

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that