Where was the good guy with a gun?

[neadods]

I sardonically wonder how the NRA is going to spin the story of a 9-year-old accidentally becoming a killer when handed an Uzi. Because they're the NRA, they can't blame either the instructor or the parents for putting a military-grade fully automatic weapon into the hands of a child and expecting her to control it; we're repeatedly told that this is what FREEDOM and OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS means these days. The NRA certainly can't blame the gun. It's all doubtless Obama's fault somehow, because Bengazi. Or Obamacare. Or possibly all liberals because abortion. Or feminism.

Personally, I think the parents should be up on some sort of neglect or endangerment charges for even thinking of handing an uzi to a child regardless of circumstances and while victim blaming is a terrible thing, the result shows that just maybe Instructor Vacca should have thought twice about the same thing. It's patently obvious that being at a target range, with the gun set to single-shot, and while being attended by an experienced instructor did dick-all for safety.

There are responsible gun owners, I need to say at this point. Thousands, probably millions of actually responsible gun owners. But I have never approved of releasing military weapons into the civilian population, and I cannot imagine anything further than responsible than to put a fully loaded and fully operational automatic weapon into the hands of a child. There's the living definition of a "well regulated militia."

You'd maybe think that the parents would have heard of the story of the 8-year-old boy who accidentally killed himself when he lost control of an uzi at a gun show. But then, I guess the difference between 8 and 9 makes ALL the difference in maturity and capability!

And to any non-Americans reading this... no, this latest tragedy Won't. Change. One. Thing. about American gun laws. Not one. Because there's always paranoia about Democratic Presidents coming for guns (civilian militias doubled when Clinton was in office), and even more paranoia about *this* Democratic President. Within 24 hours, the NRA will come out with some statement about how this is just the price of freedom. Like shot-up movie theaters. Like elementary schools. The only time there was gun regulation in this country, it was signed by a Republican President.

That poor girl. That poor, poor little girl. Nine years old, and guilty of accidental manslaughter.

Comments

[badgermirlacca.livejournal.com]

Oh, but it was an ACCIDENT. These things just happen, don't you know?

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

I read that the damned thing was on single-shot, and she was able to control it, but then Brain Donor put it on automatic fire and handed it back to her. Actually he may not be a brain donor now, but maybe an organ or two was salvageable. Darwin Award candidate.

Comments in the UK Guardian, the first presumably from an American:

-- Bottom-line......... if you are going to introduce kids to automatic weapons...... be responsible. This was no doubt a "micro-Uzi" with a short barrel. On full auto the barrel lifts UP and back on the user. It requires a firm grip and can get away from a small hand.
Be responsible. Kids should only shoot longer barreled full auto's such as:
1. M4
2. M16
4. MP5
5. AK-47
6. RPK (on mount)
7. Mini-Gun (on mount)
8. Thompson sub machine gun
9. Sten sub machine gun
10. M249 (on mount)
This is a good list for children.


-- The sane person's list of recommended guns for children:
(1) Nerf
(2) There is no number 2. What are we... psychopaths?

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Well, one could make an argument for:

1) Popgun
3) Cap pistol (although there have been accidents with those as well, but not AFAIK any fatal ones)

In rural areas, there used to be the tradition of the BB gun for older children -- but that was primarily for hunting crop-eating pests, and the children were taught gun safety FIRST. Shoot a rabbit with an Uzi, and there won't be anything left for dinner.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Fair disclosure - my father first started teaching my brother how to handle a .22 around age 9-10. After LONG lectures about gun safety and mostly because Dad himself had been taught basic riflry at that age because chunks of his family still hunted.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Mind you, both the parents and the instructor would have been classified as "sane, responsible gun owners" right up until the day before this happened. Now, of course, they're not -- because "sane, responsible gun owner" is a No True Scotsman argument in this country. Anybody who does something egregiously stupid or heinous is ejected from the club at roughly the speed of light.

[moonpupy.livejournal.com]

One of the first things DH taught me about Uzis is that they're a piece of crap. (We own and shoot guns. A lot. But, we're, ya know, intelligent.) Even on single shot, the recoil and the power of the bullet cause the gun to climb, unsafely. It's a known thing. It happens with .45s and higher calibers all the time. Hell, the instructor probably would have been safer in front of the child instead of behind her. Turning the damned thing onto full auto was sheer stupidity, and if a dead man could be charged with his own murder, he should be.

The parents? Are to blame. The instructor? Is to blame. The child? Should be put in a good home, because, Bob knows, she isn't in one now.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

On video, the girl fires a single shot and hits the dirt near the human-shaped target. The "instructor" says, "All right! Full auto!", switches the thing to automatic fire, and hands it back to her. In what universe could he POSSIBLY have thought that she was ready for that...?

Darwin Award candidate.

I wouldn't take a child of mine to a gun range in the first place, but if I saw what he was doing, I'd sure as hell stop him.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

if a dead man could be charged with his own murder, he should be.

Arguably he's paid the capitol sentence.

I so agree that the girl needs to be ELSEWHERE.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Its insane.

[hernerdiness.livejournal.com]

Most of all I feel awful for that poor child. She's old enough that she'll have the memory of this for the rest of her life.

What adult could possibly think that putting an UZI in the hands of a child would in any way be a good idea?! From what I've read, fully grown adults can barely handle the recoil, let alone a child.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What adult could possibly think that putting an UZI in the hands of a child would in any way be a good idea?

I cannot get over that. And she's not the first kid to accidentally kill with one either - her parents can't read the newspapers?

[suze2000.livejournal.com]

But you know, guns don't kill people.

MY ARSE.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I expect that the NRA will say that this is part of their 'arm the kids and they can shoot back at the crazies when they next target a school or a cinema' tactic.

Yes. That'll work.

Poor child.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

like everyone else, I mostly feel sorry for that poor little girl. Am I guilty of too much literalism? I keep thinking about what must have spattered over her and how she'll never forget it. Poor, poor little thing.