9-year-old girl accidentally kills shooting instructor with Uzi

You are wrong. Most people who are 'gun nuts' are smart enough to know what weapons are appropriate for a person's age/experience. We can all agree that a 9 year old shooting an automatic weapon is sheer idiocy.

 

Right when you think Florida looks like the most backward state in the union, Arizona comes in and makes it a race once again. I'm proud to be a Wildcat.

 

Extactly.

UZI is used by highly trained military people. teaching a girl to shoot for the first time using this type of gun? brainless!

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/02/us/arizona-girl-fatal-shooting-accident?c=&page=2

 

Ever fired one? It's a hell of a weapon. I have a good friend who collects weapons of that sort (Uzi, AK-47, etc.) and various other kinds of guns, and loves to take them to a range. I go with him sometimes. He also loves to take them apart, clean them, and put them back together again. Used to hunt a lot, but now mostly shooting at a range, or on his deer lease, where friends hunt, but he usually doesn't. It's a hobby. He's a collector. He's also a retired cardiovascular surgeon. The guy is about as far from being a "nut" as you could imagine. He would never, never have been stupid enough to allow his 9 year old kid to shoot his Uzi (and he has kids). The parents in this instance are well and truly idiots, as was the poor "instructor." Like others have said, I feel sorry for the young girl, who has to live with an experience she should never have been given by those certifiably mad parents.

As for myself, I learned how to shoot from my grandfather and father when I was 8 or 9 years old on Grandpa's ranch in East Texas. We used a bolt action 22 LR Remington Grandpa had as long as I can remember, plinking cans sitting on a fence rail on one of his pastures. I support gun rights, but think that there is a minority of gun owners who make the rest of us look bad by being extremists when it comes to guns and gun ownership, in my humble opinion.

 

Bullets and Burgers

Catchy name

Rocket River

 

For once - agreed.

 

Wha... first you take away my 9-year old's Uzis and then you will take away all our guns.

 

Opinions about this freak accident is more about the gun culture we're apart of, like the shooting range's name epitomizes, than any real concern about dangerous 9 year olds rampaging the streets with their newly learned uzi skills.

I say live and let live until there's no argument about whether to keep them or not.

 

Resident gun nut checking in here.

A 9-year old female does NOT have the strength or muscular control, much less brain power, to safely operate a fully automatic 9mm Uzi. That should have been obvious to EVERYONE at the range. This is a weapon without a stock to absorb the weapon's recoil. Full auto weapons suffer from sharp muzzle rise - the muzzle is pushed upwards by the rapid consecutive recoil while firing. This is why many weapons use select-fire burst modes (like military M4/M16s) - to minimize muzzle rise and increase control. Even an adult male will sometimes have problems controlling that muzzle rise.

I have been present when children fired full auto weapons before. Such as a 13 year old firing a M60 on a bipod, with the instructor in a safe control position over the kid. That is safe. I myself first took my kid to the range when he was 7 to fire a .22 LR, his first real live fire. Before that he got an airsoft gun at 5, a BB gun at 6, and didn't get to go to the range until he could recite the 4 rules of firearm safety whenever I quizzed him on it. He is 10 now and can fire my ARs, but he still prefers the .22 LR, which is appropriate for a child. He still cannot safely handle a handgun since he doesn't have the required strength and dexterity, and I know that - that is still several years off. They have to build up to the big stuff...

The instructor never should have allowed it. The parents never should have allowed it. The range never should have have allowed it. They will all be paying for it for the rest of their lives. Well, everyone but the instructor will, that is. He already paid in full for his mistake.

Training children with firearms is a worthwhile endeavor, and if done correctly can produce children who aren't afraid of (or curious about - very important) firearms, but who understand that they are not toys and are never to be used except in dire situations.

Stupid and firearms mix about as well as 9-year old girls and full auto Uzis do.