She should damn well be able to shoot an UZI says range operator where the negligent shooting of an instructor took place:
The derp starts at around 3:14. First off, 8 year old girls and 8 year old boys range in sizes. I have no doubt some 8 year old girls weigh more than I do, but if were talking average I think it’s safe to say they are pretty small.
The 8 year old girl is so mature she had a “bucket list”. What’s her dad’s ARFCOM username? I want to check his post count.
The owner of the range does have a point though that this is definitely an isolated incident, and problems like this basically never happen.
Seems to me like the bottom line here is that not letting kids shoot guns would probably take a significant chunk out of his income. If a kid dies every decade or an instructor takes a bullet every now and then, it’s all part of the risk.
I don’t really know what the answer is here. I do think semi-auto is exciting enough for inexperienced kids who are just getting introduced to shooting. If your kid is learning to drive, first thing do you rent or buy them a supercar? Even if was affordable for you, probably not a good idea.
Thoughts?
Comments
15 responses to “If A Very Mature 8 Year Old Lady Wants To Shoot An UZI”
The best thing this guy could have done was to sit at home and not give interviews. He didn’t do that. Also, Rachel Maddow’s sex change has gone well. I didn’t know she changed her name to Chris Hayes.
The OSHA fine is going to put this guy out of business.
From watching the video it looks like the girl let go of the UZI with her left hand, thus losing control of the weapon. How many rounds in the magazine? Starting out in semi was proper, one shot per trigger pull. I would have then loaded ONLY 2 or 3 rounds to try full auto and see if the child can control it. Go from there on loading more rounds depending on how the child does.
Exactly my thoughts when I first saw what happened. You treat such a small shooter as you would a newly fabricated gun – you never load a full mag and hope for the best.
I wonder if there was a discussion between the range instructor and her parents beforehand? Did the parent(s) insist she shoot FA – if so, they carry the brunt of the blame, but the instructor still had the final say and unfortunately will never get the chance to learn from his mistake.
My thoughts as well, but I doubt the range safety instructors cared. As previously stated in his video, the RSO’s won’t allow you to break the 180 degree plane. Well, that didn’t prove true in this case. So, I doubt the range safety officer or instructor actually had a legitimate safety briefing, or if there was a range safety officer to begin with.
I think this instructor, and possibility the business, was probably more concerned about getting people to quickly shoot the ammunition to quickly make their money, than concern about safety. Most of us have seen the, “Shoot a live Tommy Gun” banners on gun ranges, and how the customers usually gets quickly shuffled through so the range can make a quick $50-$100.
I’m just glad this instructor’s lack of safety didn’t kill anyone else.
Yep, this is such a non-issue. It’s only in the news because a gun was used to possess a little girl and take out the evil master it rebelled against. The gun wanted to speak out against being used by such a young, fragile user…
But seriously, the instructor alone is responsible for his negligence. The girl, 5, 6, 7, or 9 years of age can absolutely handle an automatic weapon…as long as the instructor does his job by holding on too. My children, as early as 5 years old, all fired 9mm glock pistols, AR15s, and even AKs in semi-auto only because I was there holding on too so they see and learn how to handle the violence. To the 9 year old, now tramatized for life, I say, ‘good shoot.’ Darwin was served here.
“If a kid dies every decade or an instructor takes a bullet every now and then, it’s all part of the risk.”
How many deaths have resulted from children shooting machineguns on supervised ranges in the last decade? I know of two, but that isn’t an exhaustive list.
How many deaths have resulted from children shooting title I firearms on supervised ranges in the last decade?
How many deaths have resulted from children using pools, stairs, bikes, skateboards, or other fun things in that same period of time?
Frankly, it’s a complete non-issue. This is yet another case where worry is the thief of joy.
How many Murders have been committed with a machine gun since 1934? Exactly TWO, and one was by a Police Officer. Repeal all the anti-gun laws, they DO NOT stop criminals.
Accidents happen, and you should think twice before you act to prevent them. If you commit a crime with a firearm, LIFE IN PRISON, if you kill someone with a firearm in the commission of a crime, LIFE IN PRISON WITH NO PAROLE or (in States that allow it) THE DEATH PENALTY. Not that a criminal would care.
That’s a self-defeating argument: Asking “how many murders have been committed with machienguns since the government practically banned machineguns” and having the answer be “practically zero” just plays into the hands of those seeking to apply the same (or more stringent) levels of regulation on ALL firearms.
As far as the rest of your post, I disagree: I don’t think that the use of a firearm in a crime has any bearing on the morality of the criminal act itself. We punish criminals for immoral and anti-social behavior, and I don’t believe that a mugging or murder committed with a firearm is any more immoral or anti-social than one committed with a knife, or with bare hands.
Yawn
This could have happened with any first-time shooter. It’s so obvious now that there should have only been a couple of rounds in the mag.
The age of the shooter was not the problem. The parents allowed the child to become familiar with a firearm (no problem there) with an instructor that led them to believe he was duly qualified for the task at hand. Therein lies the problem. It was his responsibility to determine that his “student” was qualified for the activity and then proceed in a safe manner. I was an instructor in the military, law enforcement and a hunter safety instructor plus a competitive shooter for decades. One thing an INSTRUCTOR never does is allow ANY shooter to use a weapon that is beyond their ability. This one did. The child was not familiar with the weapon and firing “one test round” before going full auto is stupid at best. When teaching a person of small stature (regardless of age) an instructor must consider the shooters ability to control the weapon. As an example it may be barrel heavy because of a long barrel and the shooter will have difficulty keeping it safely pointed down range. It is the instructors responsibility to provide a safe shooting environment.
My children began “gun safety” at about 3-4 years of age. No, I did not say they started shooting at that age but each began when they were ready, willing and able but they were on the range by 5-6 years of age. In fact my youngest son would assist me in the Hunter Safety classes. I taught hundreds of children over the years but required that one parent attend the class with their child. My son who at the time weighed about 40 pounds would demonstrate various rifles (even military style) so the younger students would not be intimidated by the weapons appearance. They, the younger ones, understood that if my son could handle a rifle at his size and age the students could but only if the were willing to do so. An instructor should never force or even allow a shooter to use any firearm if the person is not willing to do so. Maybe this desert war veteran never taught a young shooter the size of this girl and he did not know he should holding the weapon to help control it. When I was on military ranges it was not unusual to find a 17-20 year GI who needed “special training” when using a weapon. Especially if they were raised in a city neighborhood. Some were even afraid of firing their weapon on full auto because they were unable to control it. My wife has fired a fully automatic weapon but only after proper instruction. The parents were obviously comfortable with the instructor’s credentials and maybe those credentials were false. That is for the courts to decide. The problem is the child in this case will always remember this incident and I am sure will affect her forever. After all this was a preventable accident.
May God Bless the families affected by this tragedy and I pray the young lady can handle the pain in the years to come. Stay safe.
By way of analogy, any responsible SCUBA instructor would refuse to teach a child younger than a certain age or physical size, or one without swimming skills to begin with. In the middle of this sad situation we must conclude the instructor-with all due respect and condolences- should have refused to allow the girl to shoot the weapon. The parents bear some responsibilty also- like turning a small child loose on an adult sized snowmobile. The best that can be said is this occurance is a singular exception that in no way indiects the firearms community or American Societ at large.
I must be ‘strange,’ because this incident doesn’t horrify me, or shock me, or make me lose sleep at night, or inspire me to hate Ebil Gunns, or anything else; I do not wail for the supposed ‘bicycleogical trauma’ (I think that’s the word) the poor frail 9-year-old has suffered, I’m not firmly convinced that this sort of thing happens almost every other Tuesday afternoon somewhere in ‘Murica because NRA, and I don’t believe that there should now be a ban on all automatic weapons in the hands of those who cannot yet handle an xBox controller with a written and physical test to be administered by the BATF before anyone of any age can shoot an Ebil Gunn, especially a select-fire one.
This was a moment of thoughtlessness by an ‘instructor’ who should’ve known better, who suffered first a brain fart of epic proportion and then a brain injury of terminal grade. Being lackadaisical with deadly devices will eventually kill you, whether it’s power tools, or chain saws, or very large stamping mills with unguarded feed chutes, or full-auto firearms. The whole thing was an aberration, something that has happened (in general terms) just TWICE in the entire history of firearms. Now, think about that: Since the 13th Century in Europe, at least, only ONE small boy has shot himself in the head with a muzzle-rising Uzi, and just ONE 9-year-old girl has shot a foolish instructor in the head with one under the same general circumstances. What are the ODDS?! If I had the option of choosing Random Accidental Death by Small Child Holding Uzi on Full-Auto as the sole means of my demise, I’d pretty much be guaranteed to live forever.
The poor ‘traumatized’ child? Children have been getting over ‘traumas’ since they were invented; Parents die, entire families die, Mongol Hordes invade, plagues stop in for a visit, volcanoes erupt, Indians act in an obstreperous manner, and amazingly, children just bounce right back. It’s only recently that ‘trauma’ of the mind, a very resilient thing normally, has become such a bugaboo, and it’s not children that are worried about it–it’s the well-meaning, hand-wringing adults that convince children that they ARE ‘traumatized’ because without the timid adults, the children would just go on about their business and ask for a cookie; They don’t WANT or NEED ‘counselling’ until some adult tells them that they ARE ‘traumatized’ and gets them the ‘professional help’ an adult just KNOWS they so richly need but the kid couldn’t care less about. “Grandma’s dead? Oh. What’s for dinner?” I had MY share of ‘traumas’–dead family members, dead pets, car crashes, the cancellation of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the end of Saturday Warner Brothers cartoon marathons, and I’m FINE. Really. No, who have you been talking to?
About as responsible as giving an 8 year old a chain saw and saying “have at it”.
Freedom demands individual responsibility.
The instructor paid for his mistake. The parents entrusted the instructor with proper evaluation of their daughter. The range owner trusted the instructor. The instructor is dead.
‘Nuff said.