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EAGLES OF DEATH Metal frontman Jesse Hughes claimed that if everyone had guns, the Bataclan massacre may not have happened, as he returned to Paris tonight to play in front of hundreds of survivors of November’s terror attacks.
In a series of highly emotionally interviews, the American singer said France’s strict gun control laws “had nothing to do with” the jihadist attack in which 90 fans died. But he questioned whether gun control had saved any lives at the Bataclan.
“I don’t think so. I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I’ve ever seen in my life charging head first into the face of death with their firearms.
“I know people will disagree with me… but that night guns made them equal,” the 43-year-old told French TV station iTele.
And I hate it that it’s that way… Until nobody has guns everybody has to have them.
Hughes — a member of America’s National Rifle Association and a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — said earlier.
I don’t go anywhere in America without a gun anymore. That sucks. And I’m not paranoid. I’m not a cowboy… but I want to be prepared.
Hughes vowed Tuesday’s gig would “be a regular rock show”, despite the area around Paris’ Olympia theatre being locked down by police, and a psychologist who has been treating the victims warning the concert could trigger panic.
“Rock and roll for me has always been fun and I am not going to let anyone take that away from me, or my friends,” he said, referring to the band’s fans.
Hughes, who will be joined on stage by band co-founder and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, said he hoped the gig will be the first step to emotional recovery.
“I hope I can walk out on that stage and be stronger than I am being right now,” he told AFP tearfully.
“I don’t want to fall to pieces in front of everyone. That is my biggest fear. This is therapy for me.”
Many of the survivors of the massacre at the Bataclan also see the concert as a form of catharsis “to end the nightmare” that began on the night of 13 November, when 130 people were killed in coordinated shootings and suicide bombings across Paris.
Helene, who was in the front row when the killers burst in to the Bataclan, said she hoped seeing the band again would bring some closure. “It will allow me to finish” the concert, said the 42-year-old.
Fear of panic, trauma
But others said they were still unsure whether to go or not.
Guillaume Munier, 29, who survived by hiding in a toilet, said: “I’m going to go to the Olympia, but I really don’t know if I’ll be able to go inside.”
Eagles resumed the world tour in Stockholm on Saturday that they halted after the Paris attacks.
Hughes admitted he was “scared, really scared” by the weight of expectation on his shoulders.
“I understand what the people who cannot come are feeling. I know in my heart the right thing to do,” he said.
But psychologist Carole Damiani, who leads a support group for the Bataclan victims, warned some people could panic if the situation is not handled correctly.
While some fans who were wounded are physically well enough to be in the audience, the mental scars were still painfully raw, she insisted.
When one person is panicking it is one thing, but a collective panic is something else.
Going to the concert with “the same music and in a similar venue only three months later, they will be plunged into a similar sensory atmosphere,” which could trigger trauma, she warned.
A team of 30 volunteer counsellors and psychologists will be on hand in the theatre, she said, adding: “No one should kid themselves that this concert is going to cure them and put everything right.”
If what they UK is planning to do is legal as they claim then surely they should not fear anyone taking a case against it?
Of course we all suspect that its not legally sound.
@Larry O Reilly: Yes, send all those Ukrainians home!
@Kevin Farrell: no one mentioned Ukrainian only you difference in people fleeing a war or economical refugee looking for a free ride
@Larry O Reilly: Exactly – no one mentioned Ukrainians. I guess the difference is they have white skin, whereas the other people fleeing war and persecution have brown or black skin.
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
How bloody dare do those lawyers check if it’s legal! Outrageous!
Typical Johnson nothing but a bully
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
The Raj is still alive in Britain.
@Don Hogan: heard u first time
@Don Hogan: It’s naff all to do with “the Raj”. Britain has had enough of these illegal migrants. The French appear to encourage their passage across the water. None of them can possibly be genuine refugees, otherwise they would have stayed in the first safe country to the one they have fled from.
There are about 67 million people living on mainland Britain. There is barely 6 million here.
Where is the UK supposed to house all these people? The UK has a housing crisis as does this country. Imagine thousands of migrants landing on the shores of Ireland, week in week out!
@Ally Collyer: So basically you want Mediterranean countries like Greece and Italy to be a buffer between the Middle East/Africa and Britain? You do realise that puts a tremendous strain on said Med nations to have to manage all refugees fleeing whatever disaster/persecution in their home countries. Why shouldn’t the Brits have to do their part, just because of geography? They took more than their fair share from most of the world’s nations when they had an empire, and left them in worse shape because of it.
@Ally Collyer: That’s a terrible way to treat Ukrainian’s fleeing the war. And just because they didn’t stay in the first safe country the arrived in after leaving Ukraine!
@Ally Collyer: For arguments sake, let’s consider them as economic migrants, not refugees. Migrants have a net economic benefit for industrialised economies by boosting the working age population and pay more in taxes than they recieve in benefits (OECD). Housing crises are caused by not building enough housing. I suspect the main reason they don’t want them is that they’re foreign, which I understand, as none of us like change.
@Kevin Farrell: ah, no one took you bait, nobody talking about Ukrainians with the exception of you,shows your leave of intelligence
@Larry O Reilly: Ah yes, exactly, nobody talking about Ukrainians. Because they have white skin. @Ally Collyer stated:
“None of them can possibly be genuine refugees, otherwise they would have stayed in the first safe country to the one they have fled from.”
Well, Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country didn’t stay in the “first safe country to the one they have fled from” did they? So, by @Ally Collyer definition they can’t be genuine refugees… or does that only apply to people with brown or black skin?
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