Fatal shooting by 9 yr old at firing range

[Hilander]

I'm all for gun rights and think its fine to teach your kids how to shoot. However I think is crazy to let a 9 year old little girl, or boy, shoot a Uzi submachine gun.

I feel sorry for the instructor but he should have kept his hand on the gun especially after he told her to switch it to full auto.

Thoughts?

Fatal shooting by 9-year-old at firing range stirs debate over guns - CBS News

 

[dDave]

I'd be hesitant to fire one of those myself and I'm an adult. I've fired some pretty large guns and the kickback can be scary.

I think this is a classic example of irresponsibility and neglect. Why in the world would you give a 9 year old girl a weapon that clearly has more kickback than she can handle?

I'm not sure why the gun debate is "stirred" over something like this. Accidents happen, this was clearly unintentional. Car wrecks are unintentional too, don't see anyone looking to ban those... Just saying.

 

[Van]

This was sad when I read it. It's ironic but it's so sad. You should know the recoil is going to be powerful on a fully automatic. Especially when you teach gun safety. Hopefully gun instructors are taking note of this. I don't think it's wrong to let a 9 year old shoot but to you need to make sure it is done safely.

Things like this make me think of Stalin's thought on death rates (he was a monster of course). One death is a tragedy, but the thousands murdered by gangs in in we cities is just a statistic. I believe the actual saying goes, one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic. I don't say that do diminish the tragedy of this one death; by no means. I think we as a culture have grown apathetic towards certain types of crimes and murder; and our news media feeds us what brings in the most rating and those are the single death stories with some special circumstances, similar tragedies seem to no longer be deemed as tragedies or worthy of noting. I think that says something about our society. We are consumers, and we as a whole are no different when it comes to our news media.

 

[Hilander]

I don't know the reason for the gun debate either. This was nothing but a accident. Maybe its a reason for shooting ranges to rethink their policies or parents think twice before allowing their child to shoot a weapon like this. The little girl could have shot herself in the head.

 

[Merc]

There's no debate to be had here. We have (had) an irresponsible instructor who thought it would be a smart idea to give a small child an automatic weapon and specifically one with a fuckton of kick.

To me, this shows that it doesn't matter if you've got a uniform on, years of training (I'm assuming), and all the confidence in the world, you can always make a mistake. Although, if you ask me, this is a pretty big one that should have been seen a mile away.

 

[MenInTights]

Just speculation but I bet he thought it'd be a cool video to post to youtube and fb. Some people are so freaking addicted to how many hits they get that they end up making really dumb choices that they wouldn't otherwise. If there's one good thing (and there's not really) its that the girl didn't shoot herself in the head.

 

[CaptainObvious]

I'm going to go a little against the prevailing wisdom here and say the problem isn't giving a 9 year old an Uzi, the problem here was the instructor. You stand over their right shoulder and your left hand should be pressed against the back shoulder, around the scapula, and your right hand should be free to push the gun back in front of it recoils or grab the gun away if you have to. I feel bad for the guy, but in my opinion the instruction was wrong.

 

[Dr4gon]

Wtf? Im not even allowed to try a .45 because of my low body weight and that girl is definitely smaller than me! And why do people wanna practice with illegal guns anyway? You cant hunt with a Uzi btw. There wont be any meat left on the game.

Imo this is all about shooting ranges that are too stupid to know how dangerous it can get if someone cant deal with the recoil. That accident proves that even the best instructor cant deal with every recoil issue. There should be a new law about body weight and recoil. I mean if I cant even shoot a .45 then why should a 9 yo get to shoot a Uzi?

 

[Hilander]

I can understand just wanting the experience of shooting one but I think its stupid to let a child that young shoot one.

Several years ago a 8 year old boy shot himself in the head with one at a sports club.

Boy, 8, dies after accidentally shooting himself with UZI at Westfield Sportsman's Club machine gun shoot | masslive.com

 

[CaptainObvious]

Wtf? Im not even allowed to try a .45 because of my low body weight and that girl is definitely smaller than me! And why do people wanna practice with illegal guns anyway? You cant hunt with a Uzi btw. There wont be any meat left on the game.

Imo this is all about shooting ranges that are too stupid to know how dangerous it can get if someone cant deal with the recoil. That accident proves that even the best instructor cant deal with every recoil issue. There should be a new law about body weight and recoil. I mean if I cant even shoot a .45 then why should a 9 yo get to shoot a Uzi?

No it doesn't, because 1) there are instructors who have taught kids this age how to shoot all the time; and 2) this instructor messed up, so you can't conclude "even the best instructors" because this instructor did it wrong.

This isn't proof of anything other than this guy messed up. You can't conclude no 9 year old should be taught based on just this anecdotal evidence.