#426 (1/29) "What Exactly Is an Assault Weapon?"

 UPDATE AND CALL FOR  CONTINUED  PRAYER AND NEW ACTION, Jan. 28: After a short sham trial, Iran has convicted American Pastor Saeed Abedini – a U.S. citizen – and sentenced him to eight years in one of Iran's most brutal and deadly prisons – merely because he is a Christian.Iran has violated Pastor Saeed's human rights, violated its own constitution, and violated multiple international treaties and covenants that it voluntarily and willingly signed. At the ACLJ, we are mobilizing a domestic and international effort to pressure Iran to abide by its treaties and agreements. We are calling on the United Nations and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights to directly intervene and demand Pastor Saeed's release.
More than 250,000 of you signed our petition to ask the Obama Administration to intervene, and the White House and State Department responded. Take action. PLEASE CONTINUE PRAYING for his release AND  Sign this NEW petition to mobilize the international community. http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence

REMINDER: If you didn't get a chance to check out this week's broadcast of "The Spiritual State of the Union," please go to www.truthinactioin.org and watch the 10 minute video of the special feature they had on the program for this week. Excellent look at what this past election indicated for our nation on social issues and the challenge before the Church. Please also encouage you friends to check it out.- Stan

REQUEST: I am participating in the annual fundraiser Walk for Lifeon Feb. 9 for a local pregnancy resource center that ministers to girls and women who might otherwise abort their baby. My goal is $213. If you can make a pledge of $10 or more, please reply to this email. Thank you.

"What Exactly Is an Assault Weapon?," - By Lee Webb, CBN News Anchor, January 17, 2013, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2013/January/What-Exactly-Is-an-Assault-Weapon/

 For the average person, there's a misconception about what exactly assault weapons are."When I hear assault rifle, I think fully automatic or something like that," one person told CBN News. "You just pull the trigger and it continues to go, something like that," another person said.

They're not alone. Several people CBN News spoke with believe there's no difference between the fully automatic weapons our soldiers and marines use in Afghanistan and the assault weapon the gunman used in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The fact they look identical may add to the confusion. But there is one very important difference.

CBN Chief of Security Chris Mitchell took CBN News Anchor Lee Webb to the range to demonstrate.

"The difference is in the fact that this weapon only shoots in a semi-automatic fashion... meaning it shoots one round for every trigger pull," Mitchell explained. [He]explained the military version of the same weapon has the capability of shooting more than one round with a trigger pull. "So as fast as you can pull the trigger is as fast as you're gonna shoot," he said about the kind of weapon used at Sandy Hook.

Each time the gunman pulls the trigger, only one round fires, which is no different from a semi-automatic pistol or even a 22-caliber target rifle. To be sure, this weapon has more power and a longer range than this pistol. You can see the difference between the ammunition.

However, it is important to note that the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 was the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history by a single gunman. And he didn't use an assault weapon. All he had were two semi-automatic pistols."So do you believe that putting a ban on these so-called assault weapons will prevent another Newtown massacre?" Webb asked Mitchell. "I honestly don't believe that that's going to make any difference," Mitchell said. "Law-abiding citizens that own these respect the weapons. That's why we buy weapons." "But anyone that has a desire to hurt people are gonna use whatever they can get their hands on to do so," he said. "So banning these is not going to make any significant difference."