I’m putting this in the Pit because I have a feeling this is where it’s going to go anyway.
On Monday a nine year old girl who was on vacation with her family in Arizona accidentally shot and killed an instructor at a gun range when he told her to go “full auto.”
The girl was unable to control the recoil and accidentally shot her instructor in the head.
I’m not against the responsible ownership of guns. I’m not against teaching children how to handle guns safely. I’m not even against adults handling automatic weapons in a controlled shooting environment. But a nine year old isn’t going to have the upper body strength to handle a weapon with a powerful recoil. She made one shot without incident, then according to the story, was told to go fully automatic. Many adults would have a hard time keeping their feet when firing a machine gun on full auto. I pit the parents of the child and the management of the gun range for their lack of judgment in this incident. I have sympathy for the girl, as it wasn’t her fault. And I feel sorry for the instructor and his family.
To repeat, I have no problem with responsible gun ownership in the U.S. And I have no problem with teaching children gun safety on weapons they are capable of controlling. Nine year olds + Uzis = Bad, though. Mmm’kay? Complete dumbfuckery by the parents and the gun range.
The last time this EXACT SAME THING happened it was the kid that got the bullet in the head. Baby steps. Eventually after enough people get shot in the head from this EXACT same thing, something will be proposed to be done about it.
I thought the same thing when I saw the story. “Oh man, somebody is going to make a pit thread about this shit”.
Then I thought about posting in the 2008 thread about THE EXACT SAME SHIT but didn’t. Because that time it was the 8 year old who died, not the moron who handed the child a loaded gun.
My dad let me shoot machine guns all the time when I was three, and let me drive our station wagon cross-country while he slept in the back, and it was perfectly fine and safe and lots of fun.
Also, more kids die while riding tricycles and jumping on trampolines than shooting Uzis, therefore I guess you want to ban swimming pools and sleeping bags too.
Also, freedom and liberty and 2nd Amendment.
Just figured I’d get those out of the way.
When was this last time? How often does it happen? And what do you propose be done about it?
As for the OP, I have to say that the instructor is to blame on several levels. Not sure why the parents are to blame for having their kid go for instruction, but definitely the instructor and the range (and range safety officer, if it wasn’t the instructor) is to blame. Total sympathy for the little girl…that’s got to be a hell of a traumatic thing to go through, and unnecessary if the instructor did what he was supposed to do and supposedly trained to do.
Also, kids should be allowed to fly Raptors and use RPGs. I would say that’s irony, except in parts of the world kids actually shoot AK47s and fire RPGs. At people. Not for fun.
The 8 year old murdered himself in 2008. That video was just uploaded in 2011.
“An 8-year-old boy died after shooting himself in the head at a gun expo near Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2008. Christopher Bizilj was firing at pumpkins when the Uzi kicked back.”
Ok, I only glanced quickly at the link, since I really, REALLY didn’t want to watch the video. Not that either of these things weren’t tragic, but I don’t think we need to Do Something About It™!..it’s not exactly something that’s happening every day, especially considering that millions of people in the US go shooting every year.
Just use some common sense people. The range rules are there for a reason, and a guy who is a trainer should KNOW them backwards and forward and actually follow the things.
To be fair, lots of kids die while riding tricycles, but there has never been a single child killed while piloting an F-22 Raptor. Clearly parents who give their kids tricycles instead of fighter jets are horrible parents.
I agree. I don’t think this happens every day and I don’t think we need to do something about it. If you read the OP, I was just pitting one incident where some supposedly responsible chucklefucks acted irresponsibly.
I made this thread so that people can post some Recreational Outrage[sup]TM[/sup] without hijacking the MPSIMS thread. I’m not saying nor do I believe this incident indicates any general failure of our society, just the actions of a few “adults” who should have had more common sense. But, this is the Straight Dope, where hyperbole runs rampant, I suppose.
And I know, I’m probably contradicing myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.
To be a bit nitpicky, I bet it was the muzzle climb, not the recoil that was the problem. Submachine guns don’t kick all that much relative to other rifles and carbines, but the ones I’ve fired full-auto (Thompson, M3 Grease Gun, Sten, MP-40) all had pretty crazy muzzle climb on full-auto.
I’d be willing to bet that she totally didn’t expect muzzle climb, and managed to fire at the target, off into the distance, into her instructor, and probably into the roof of the place, all in a second or so.
I agree with you, the incident was a clusterfuck and those responsible were idiots…and I really feel for the little girl who has to live with this now.
Look, the best thing we can do is support this tragic little girl, a victim of her own 2nd Amendment Rights.
Oh, god, WHY won’t someone think about the Uzi-spraying elementary school girls ???
Apparently it doesn’t matter if you kill yourself or your “Instructor” with a machine gun. What really matters here is that this young warrior’s rights to join a militia and carry a machine gun have been preserved intact.
Naw, all that apparently really matters is the ability to use this tragic and bizarre incident to whine about the 2nd Amendment and to backhandedly use it for political agenda purposes. Right?
