![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Where was the good guy with a gun?
Aug. 27th, 2014 11:48 amI 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.
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.
