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Eagles of Death Metal frontman against gun control

Hughes angered venue owners by suggesting security staff were in on the attack.

Hughes angered venue owners by suggesting security staff were in on the attack. Photo: Facebook

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes says he would like to see everyone have access to guns, saying it might have prevented dozens of the band’s fans being shot dead by terrorists during last year’s Paris attacks.

The Californian rock band was performing in the Bataclan concert hall last November when four jihadists stormed the theatre and opened fire.

Ninety people died in the attack, while another 39 were killed in a series of separate attacks across the city.

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Now Hughes has questioned the effectiveness of France’s gun laws in an emotional interview with French television station, iTele.

Questioned about his views on gun control, Hughes asked the interviewer: “Did your French gun control stop a single f***ing person from dying at the Bataclan?”.

“If someone can answer yes, I’d like to hear it,” he added.

Hughes, who has previously declared his support for the right to bear arms in the US, argued that if concertgoers had been able to carry weapons, more might have survived.

Eagles of Death Metal

The band at the Bataclan on the night of the attacks. Photo: AAP

“I think the only thing that stopped it were some of the bravest men that I’ve ever seen in my life charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms,” he said.

“I know people will disagree with me, but it just seems like God made men and women, and that night guns made them equal.

“And I hate it that it’s that way. I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe until nobody has guns, everybody has to have them.

“Because I’ve never seen anyone that’s ever had one dead, and I want everyone to have access to them, and I saw people die that maybe could have lived, I don’t know.”

Eagles of Death Metal are planning to return to Paris and play what will likely be one of the most emotionally charged concerts in rock history for the hundreds of survivors.

Visibly distressed throughout the interview, Hughes said he was still struggling to recover from the ordeal, but hoped the concert would help he and the rest of the victims find closure.

“I haven’t had any nightmares, I’ve slept fine. But when I’m awake is when I see things that are nightmares,” he said.

“And I thought that talking about it would make it easier … I thought that expelling it from inside of me would make me less like this, but it hasn’t.

“There’s really no frame of reference for this at all … I just wish it would go away.

“[We will play the concert] so that everyone can kind of leave some of this bad stuff behind and make more room in here for better stuff,” he said, pointing to his heart.

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