9 year old girl shoots instructor with uzi

[20mm]

The "Instructor" was an idiot who committed suicide using a 9 year old girl. If he was any more negligent he would have been standing downrange next to the target.

[ex-LT]

Anyone want to make bet as to how soon some states/ municipalities propose legislation to combat the ignorance and stupidity behind this tragedy?

I was thinking the same thing... while it's a very sad incident, it certainly isn't common - yet they'll make some law over it.

"You can't legislate against stupidity, but we try to do it all the time."
One of the few things James Janos got right as governor. That said, somewhere, some well-meaning elected official will introduce legislation in attempt to "save us from ourselves." Even sadder is the fact that, if he/she is successful, they will perpetuate the problem by once again "dumbing down" the American public.

[Snakeman721]

CNN, NBC and MSNBC were all over this last night. They couldn't spout off how stupid it was enough times and suggested that "something needs to be done to stop tragedies like this from ever happening again"...hint=more stupid guns laws. It was a tragic accident albeit the "instructor" was being pretty stupid on his "training".

[yukonjasper]

Maybe I'm naive, but I can't shake the feeling that this was avoidable. I understand that the place where this happened was some kind of tourist stop? Firearms aren't F'ing toys!

I think you are right on. Not only was it preventable, it was criminal for these "adults" to put this child into a position that endangered her life and put her mental health in jeopardy. The only outcome that would have been more tragic is if she had self inflicted a wound and died. You can't legislate good judgement - it is lacking in so many ways today. It frightens me to see these examples over and over. Pure stupidity.

[20mm]

It could have been worse: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/10/27 ... -gun-show/

[linksep]

It could have been worse: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/10/27 ... -gun-show/

That sucks on so many levels but at least the kid doesn't have to live with it for the next 90 years.

[LarryP]

8 years old, What are these people thinking???

[Bearcatrp]

The dumb ass media will milk this story for a long time. Crap like this gives the anti gun groups more ammo to push gun control. I just shake my head when I see stupid stuff like this. Poor girl will probably never pick up a weapon again.

[ericinmn1970]

Related to this story, I got into a fairly heated discussion with my liberal fiance and our liberal neighbors regarding this topic tonight. Their take on this was a mixture of anti-gun rhetoric, "why does anyone need an UZI?" and "guns are bad", on to the, "if there was a law in place, this wouldn't have happened" argument. What did catch me somewhat off guard though, was when my neighbors went on to place sole blame upon the parents and none upon the establishment. While I do feel the parents made a poor choice in bringing a 9 year old girl to a place like this and placing her in danger; I also feel the ultimate responsibility rests upon the establishment and the range officer/instructors to be able to assess who is capable enough to safely handle the deadly weapons they are placing into the hands of the patrons.

So now I'm here, looking for a reality check. Am I wrong in this? I was always taught that the range officers had the final say as to who could shoot what on their ranges. Who holds the bulk of responsibility for this? Certainly not a 9 year old girl.

[tenmilmag]

The "range officer" was either not present or incompetent. Certainly the establishment is at fault here. And they damn well deserve a heavy hand.

[Rip Van Winkle]

While there's plenty of blame to go around, ultimately it's the range and the RSO's who should bear the majority of the responsibility. I find myself wondering if this range had a safety plan or if any RSO's were even present.

[Ghost]

I place the responsibility on the trainer. The parents didn't hand the kid an Uzi and say have fun. They paid a trainer to teach her to shoot safely. The trainer could have said she was too young but he accepted the challenge. The trainer failed. Now the girl will have to live with this for the rest of her life.

[20mm]

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ ... /1d0z7d6pt <-2008 Shooting Death / Trial

[urlhttp://wgntv.com/2014/08/27/police-girl-9-firing-uzi-at-shooting-range-accidentally-kills-instructor/]Edit: Looks like the ex-police chief was found not guilty of manslaughter[/url]

Looks like the NRA got in the spotlight posting to twitter:

http://rt.com/usa/183484-nra-shooting-range-child/

[xd ED]

I agree that the guy with 'hands on' was extremely negligent. It's reasonable that the parent(s) did not understand their daughter's (in)ability to handle a sub gun, and were trusting the guy to proceed safely.
The safe way to introduce a youngster, or anyone else to that weapon wound be a series of one shot volleys, possibly followed by a series of double-taps, and if it looks like it would be safe- adding another round or two to the magazine.
About the only thing that would have made this worse would have been if dad got shot.

[20mm]

I'd say you almost have to have the gun fixed to allow an inexperienced/weak/bad shooter handle it. You might as well put and angry cat in a box and expect the range officer to be able to handle it.

Something like this: