Why does a 9 year old need to learn to shoot an Uzi?

The 9 year old would have been just as thrilled shooting a pink .22 single shot rifle.

Ahhhhh god, not again! WTF! This just happened a couple years ago with an UZI. Stop letting little kids shoot machineguns unless someone (adult) has complete positive control of the firearm, or better yet, see the post above. F-ing idiots!

Very Sad. Totally Preventable.

Totally F'd up incident. If that was a full sized UZI I'm surprised she could even hold and operate it. They do take a little strength.

I agree that this is tragic, but I don't like the insinuation that people NEED a reason to shoot FA.

I hate to speak ill of the dead...

But to me, the only person I can think to blame is the instructor. The instructor is there primarily to ensure safety, and in this case he tragically failed miserably.

clearly a 9 year old doesn't know better. The parents should have, but I can understand they didn't. After all, they had an 'expert' there to make sure everything is done properly.

My heart goes to the family of the instructor, but i really feel for the girl. I know that taking a life can screw up a trained soldier, I can't imagine what it does to a 9 year old. let alone the manner in which it happened.

There is an honest debate needed around 'gun control' and who should be able to have a gun. But it is equally shameful that this incident will be used as a 'guns are bad' example. You can't be in a safer setting, open range, instructor right there... but someone screwed up.

Personally I'd like to see this turn into a debate about gun SAFETY, not gun CONTROL.

....tragic....

It is a sad situation but ultimately it is the instructor who bares the blame. He was the one in charge of the situation.

yup.

I was thinking about this while driving today. I had my windows down, music up, and was chugging along at a pretty good clip. I really enjoy driving on days like today. While I love driving, I'm careful not to lose respect for the car or for the potential harm that can come to me or others if I get careless with it.

The car is a potentially deadly machine. To limit the possibility of accidental harm, its user should seek training and maintain a healthy level of respect for what the machine is capable of. Some people become complacent and lose respect for the machine. They'll drive drunk, waaaaaayyyyy too fast for the road conditions, or will give their attention to something besides the road. While it's possible to have a 9 year old safely drive a car, it's essential that they be properly trained to operate it, and have supervision present that absolutely will not allow something to go wrong. It's the instructor's responsibility to ensure that they shield the new driver from their own inexperience.

I think this translates fairly well to guns, or any potentially harmful machine. In this case, the guardians and trainer of the child failed to properly protect her from her inexperience. As a result, the trainer is dead and the child has severe emotional trauma that she has to get past.

In short, everyone got complacent and didn't set the girl up for success. They lost respect for the potentially deadly tool. The instructor also positioned himself poorly. I've taught a lot of new shooters how to operate a firearm and shoot. The only time I'll stand near the left shoulder of a right-handed shooter is when we are working on dry-fire practice. Just the nature of biomechanics, all the shooter has to do is to bend their dominant elbow and/or flex their wrist and you're catching a shot to your body somewhere. Once there is live ammo, I'm behind their dominant shoulder. Depending on what's going on, I may be reaching forward to help stabilize and control the firearm from the dominant side from behind the shooter's dominant arm. My non-dominant arm can be used to help support the shooter's shoulder from behind, but isn't needed if proper training is given up to that point.

This is a terrible tragedy and it's unfortunate the child has to go through life with mental scars because of the poor decisions by the adults who were responsible for her at the time of the accident. Luckily, accidental firearm deaths are extremely rare with only 606 in 2010 vs. 35,322 automotive fatalities....or even 3,782 by accidental drowning. It's still important to remember to respect any potentially deadly machine and to not become complacent around it.

so true.

smokey0118 said:

...I think this translates fairly well to guns, or any potentially harmful machine. In this case, the guardians and trainer of the child failed to properly protect her from her inexperience. As a result, the trainer is dead and the child has severe emotional trauma that she has to get past.

In short, everyone got complacent and didn't set the girl up for success. They lost respect for the potentially deadly tool. The instructor also positioned himself poorly. I've taught a lot of new shooters how to operate a firearm and shoot. The only time I'll stand near the left shoulder of a right-handed shooter is when we are working on dry-fire practice. Just the nature of biomechanics, all the shooter has to do is to bend their dominant elbow and/or flex their wrist and you're catching a shot to your body somewhere. Once there is live ammo, I'm behind their dominant shoulder. Depending on what's going on, I may be reaching forward to help stabilize and control the firearm from the dominant side from behind the shooter's dominant arm. My non-dominant arm can be used to help support the shooter's shoulder from behind, but isn't needed if proper training is given up to that point.

This is a terrible tragedy and it's unfortunate the child has to go through life with mental scars because of the poor decisions by the adults who were responsible for her at the time of the accident. Luckily, accidental firearm deaths are extremely rare with only 606 in 2010 vs. 35,322 automotive fatalities....or even 3,782 by accidental drowning. It's still important to remember to respect any potentially deadly machine and to not become complacent around it.

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very well said.

Sveiks said:

But to me, the only person I can think to blame is the instructor. The instructor is there primarily to ensure safety, and in this case he tragically failed miserably.

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True and the truth of the matter is....... he was a very POOR instructor.

lesson to us all (Gun owners and Non-gun owners)

BlackBart said:

True and the truth of the matter is....... he was a very POOR instructor.

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hell of a way to learn a lesson tho... Well, I guess he didn't have time learn. Hopefully the rest of the country will.

We all know it. Guns are lethal, they deserve respect, and they require practice. Start at the 'lighter' guns and work your way up..

i just don't understand how anyone thought this was a good idea. I've made some dumb decisions in my life, but this one I can't even comprehend.

IMBLITZVT said:

I do left young kids, even younger than her shoot my MGs... well my Heavy Maxim MG. Its 100lbs on a Sled Tripod completely locked in. I can shoot it with my little finger like that...

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Someone posted a pic of that. I think it was one of our Hooligan friends. It was a young girl sitting behind what looked like a belt-fed Browning A-4.

as Rob E. has said in the past don't let a good disaster go to waste