well, peggy fox visited a local gun store to find out. >> reporter: more than three million americans own an ar15. the most popular rifle. at least one gun owner -- >> people shoot assault rifles for sport basically. target practice and they're shooting paper most of the people that come in herement it's a fun gun to shoot. it's easy. >> reporter: former republican presidential candidate michele bachmann has more. >> my favorite gun is an ar15 because you can be so accurate with it. >> reporter: it's the civilian verse of the m 16 used by the mill fair and it's the -- military and it's the gun of choice in movies and video. last week man used an ar15 to kill two people in a shopping mall in portland, oregon. but it was friday's slaying of 26 people at sandy hook elementary that has led to serious talk of a ban on the assault rifle. >> there's been talk of bans before and every time a tragedy happens they bring it up again. but hopefully common sense will prevail and you know, our rights won't be infringed. >> reporter: many people are blaming adam lanza's mother for giving him access

in annandale, peggy fox, 9news. >>> good morning. thank you for watching 9news at 5:00 a.m. i'm andrea roane. >> i'm a big fan of that program. i'm mike hydeck. thanks for joining us. good morning. how are you? >> i loved his positive energy. >> did you see the big smile on his face? >> i love that. >> good morning, howard. >> we had a metal shop but didn't go anywhere. >> that's really neat. >>> weather wise, a much better day. still a touch of fog in areas to our north and west right now. but a much -- but much less fog. we'll see some sunshine. the bigger issue will be the breeze out of the

as peggy fox reports, big plans are being put in place. >> reporter: the demolition of springfield mall has been a long time coming. it far outlived its heyday in the 1970s and '80s when it was so fancy prince charles and princess diana played a visit, but now you're more likely to find gang members than royalty. >> this was a place that went went downhill and it was heartbreaking for the people in springfield, especially me who had great memories. >> reporter: like most of us who grew up here, springfield mall was our mall. i had several birthday parties right here at ferrell's ice cream. i got my first job at the gap. so to see springfield mall falling to disrepair for so many years was sad. the problem was that the owners didn't renovate to keep up with all the other malls in the area. after mega developer bornado bought the mall in 2006 the recession hit and he defaulted. now with refinancing underway vornado is moving forward with a $200 million transformation. >> it's really amazing we've been able to move forward given the economy. >> reporter: the anchor stores, target, macy's a

peggy fox explains. >> reporter: northern virginia is the economic engine of the state. what is it that's transformed and built the economy? federal contracting. from 1980 through 2009 federal contracting in northern virginia increased from $1.7 billion to 38.5 billion, but there's worry the bottom could fall out. >> government contractors stopped doing business in fairfax county because it will be dramatically reduced. >> reporter: these two men were farther of the board meeting this week asking congress to hurry up and resolve the impending sequestration. >> if you make the kind of cuts that some suggest happen are then you're really hurting a lot of the small businesses and residents in fairfax county who rely on federal contracts for their livelihood and ultimately that trickles down to and affects fairfax county. >> reporter: fairfax county pulled in $23 billion in federal contract money in 2009. that's more than any county in the nation and $3 billion more than washington d.c. so what is it about fairfax county that makes it so attractive? dulles airport. the inter

. >> reporter: in fairfax county, peggy fox, 9news. >> the biggest expenditure for fairfax and other local counties is the school budget. less money for the county will mean less money for schools. >>> we've dedicated our entire news department to track this story and be ready with alerts on air and on the web. every day we're featuring of course that show how you will be affected should we go over that fiscal cliff. you can get alerts sent straight to your phone about all of our fiscal cliff notes by texting the cliff to 25543. >>> more than $2 billion, that is the staggering amount of money spent on the presidential campaign according on campaign finance records. that includes nearly $86 million in fund raising by mitt romney's campaign in the final weeks of the election. a good portion was used on media ads. >>> one of the senate's most outspoken conservatives jim demint is stepping down. he's giving up his senate seat to run the conservative heritage foundation. deminute has been an influential member of the tea party movement. his announcement could have repercussions not only i

i'm peggy fox.oming up what county leaders are doing to try to stop it. >> reporter: i'm kristin fisher in a maintenance yard for the national park service where a group of 5th graders are learning everything that goes into planning for a presidential inauguration. do they have what it takes? find out coming up. >> and you know, redskins fans are not the only ones in love with rg3. his opponents are in awe, as they should be. we'll hear what ravens head coach john harbaugh is afraid of. wo up with ts horrle sh on right sid iense burni sensaon sd, you hadhickenxe, en yosa, yes, i d.irl. d't think ybody er thinks th're goi get shings. but itappeneto me. r re of the side sry, visit shinesinfoom >>> this sunday will mark the first time in four years the redskins and ravens face off in the regular season. this time there's a whole lot on the line. baltimore is just one win from clinching a playoffs spot while rg3 has the redskins back in the hunt for the postseason. recently i sat down with ravens head c

leaves behind three sons, adam and david and his wife peggy crosby who was beside him. ainsley erhardt. fox wish the klugman family well. you got to see this. he gets to come home for the hollywood after harrowing time in a mexican prison a remarkable ending to a dramatic story next. jamie: plus a very special performance from now who. if you didn't, you will want to see, kelly wright. ♪ kelly: a former u.s. marine released from mexican prison late last week has made it home in time for the christmas holiday today. 27-year-old jon hammar was arrested back on august 13th for trying to bring an antique gun into mexico after authorities there dismissed his registration papers. well, he then spent the next five months behind bars where he was mostly chained to a bed and just yesterday, his father explained how they finally got him out of there. >> they allowed us to use their facilities that were secure in there and we pulled in and i got him in the car and i thanked the u.s. consulate guys and we took off and made a beeline to san pedro island and spent the night there. johnny, while i was sle