Church lures teenagers with assault rifle giveaway

An Oklahoma church canceled plans for a gun giveaway Friday at its annual youth conference, a local news station reported.

The church's youth pastor, Bob Ross, said the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle was a means of luring young people as far away as Canada, according to Oklahoma City's KOCO Channel 5 News.

“I don’t want people thinking ‘My goodness, we’re putting a weapon in the hand of somebody that doesn’t respect it who are then going to go out and kill,'” said Ross. “That’s not at all what we’re trying to do.”

The gun giveaway is a part of the event's shooting competition. A gun was given away at last year's conference and this year, Windsor Hills Baptist used the giveaway in the marketing of the event on its Web site (see above picture).

The pastor said the cancellation of the giveaway was due to the instructor of the shooting competition -- and a pastor of the church -- having injured his foot and being unable to attend.

The cancellation occurred after coverage of the controversy by local news stations.

A day before this story broke, a 12-year-old John White was accidentally shot in the head and killed in Oklahoma County by a 14-year-old friend who had easy access to his grandfather's loaded weapons, local news stations reported

With 300 million people, I am amazed that there are not more incidents of people freaking out or screwing up.

Every time something happens, some people want to change the laws and hire more cops and take away more of our rights.

I'm a fan of gun ownership. For one thing, it is an obstacle for dictators who must take the guns away before they can enforce martial law.

Assault rifle never did anything or me but I defend the right to own one.

To be a truly effective murderer you must either be power elite or elected.

There is less stopping burglars when they know the populace is defenceless. There is less stopping dictators when they know the poulace is defenseless.

I sleep better knowing I can defend myself with several weapons.

Just a few days ago, a burglar was in my backyard and dropped something they were carrying away from my storage area. I set up to eight alarms when I step out. Yes, I have been robbed.