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• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state recently passed some of the strictest gun control measures in the country, often reminds people he is a hunter. Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who founded a gun control advocacy group after surviving a gunshot wound to the head, says she and her husband keep two guns in a safe at home. Vice President Joe Biden boasts that he owns two shotguns. And the White House recently released a photo of President Barack Obama skeet shooting at the Camp David presidential retreat, trying to silence skeptics of his claim in an interview that he has actually shot a gun.
• The message is obvious: They, too, are a part of America's gun culture. In a country where at least a third of households have firearms, it's hard to impose stricter arms rules without support from gun owners. That means reassuring Americans that nobody is going to take away the guns they have legally acquired.
• Gun rights groups scoffed at what they called clumsy and obvious attempts by Biden and Obama to ingratiate themselves with firearm owners even while trying to limit their rights.
• "It's transparent, cynical and hollow and gun owners see right through it," said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation,

an association that represents gun manufacturers.
• ___

• LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Luke Bryan heard his name called at the end of the Academy of Country Music Awards, accepted the entertainer of the year trophy and then things became a blur.
• "It was like I was on the tilt-a-whirl," Bryan said.
• Bryan pulled off a dizzying upset, all right, beating out the night's top winner Miranda Lambert, two-time entertainer of the year Taylor Swift and top male stars and good friends Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean for the academy's top award.
• The 36-year-old Georgia native's reaction? He hugged the trophy and hung his head, appearing to fight back tears as members of the crowd at the MGM Grand shouted "Luke!"
• "I don't think there was anyone in the room more shocked than him," Aldean said. "That's why I love him."
• ___

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