Guns don't kill people - Children given powerful guns do

[Jimmy Higgins]

In today's venture down the "That isn't a good idea" Street, we head to the state of Arizona.

Video released Tuesday by sheriff's officials shows the 9-year-old, wearing a gray T-shirt and pink shorts with her hair pulled back in a long braid, holding the firearm (Uzi) in both hands. Vacca, standing to her left, tells her to turn her left leg forward.

"All right, go ahead and give me one shot," he tells the girl, whose back is to the camera during the entire 27-second video. He then cheers when she fires one round at the target.

"All right full auto," Vacca says. The video, which does not show the actual incident, ends with a series of shots being heard.

A nine year old child was with her parents at a shooting range, getting trained in the art of automatic weapons. Apparently, she was surprised by the recoil of a weapon set to automatic and the trainer was shot and then subsequently died as a result of the incident.

No news yet if this incident will scar the child for the rest of her life. But rest assured, the parents meant only the best in training her to use a gun she would almost never have had to touch in her lifetime.

I'm reminded of the Mo Willems books "That isn't a good idea".

Parent: Let's train our child how to use an automatic weapon.
Chick: That isn't a good idea.
Trainer: Here, grab a hold of this gun with no safety.
Chick: That really isn't a good idea.
Trainer: Take a shot.
Two Chicks: That really really isn't a good idea!
Trainer: Good job. Now put it on automatic.
Three Chicks: That really really really isn't a good idea!
Trainer: Go for it.
All the Chicks: That really really really really isn't a good idea!!!
Trainer: *shot*
The Chicks: We tried to warn him.

Honestly, this is a terrible thing to have happened, but seems to wander so far onto the side of absurd, that you can't help but not feel for anyone, but the child. The adults so utterly failed her.

 

[marc]

and the truly absurd thing is this isn't the first time.

In 2008 at a gun show in Massachusetts, an 8 year old boy was given an Uzi to try shooting. That time, the kick back caused the boy to shoot himself in the head.

An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

One questions if these 'adults' are qualified to supervise anything, with their poor judgement.

My heart goes out to that girl. She must be so traumatized by this.

 

[funinspace]

Pffft…what a bunch of pansies! Accepting a little collateral damage is just part of life. If we’d just man up and teach more of our children how to fire real weapons, we would have never failed in Af-Pak

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/turkistan_islamic_pa_2.php

In the video, the children, some of whom appear to be no older than six, are shown firing handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, and a PKM machine-gun from various positions. At one point, 13 children are seen on line, firing AK-47s while standing and lying down.

 

[prideandfall]

Honestly, this is a terrible thing to have happened

how so?
several gun nuts are screwed over in some form or another, and some idiot in AZ is dead - this seems like an overall win-win scenario to me.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Honestly, this is a terrible thing to have happened

how so?
several gun nuts are screwed over in some form or another, and some idiot in AZ is dead - this seems like an overall win-win scenario to me.

For the child?

And as marc noted, this was the guy in charge of training people how to use guns (presumably "safely").

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I think it's disappointing that in a business which lets nine year olds play with uzis, only one person working for that business is dead.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Pffft…what a bunch of pansies! Accepting a little collateral damage is just part of life. If we’d just man up and teach more of our children how to fire real weapons, we would have never failed in Af-Pak

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/turkistan_islamic_pa_2.php

In the video, the children, some of whom appear to be no older than six, are shown firing handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, and a PKM machine-gun from various positions. At one point, 13 children are seen on line, firing AK-47s while standing and lying down.

At least it's harder to shoot one's self with an AK.

Add this to the list of famous last words: "All right full auto".

 

[fromderinside]

In today's venture down the "That isn't a good idea" Street, we head to the state of Arizona.

"All right full auto," Vacca says. The video, which does not show the actual incident, ends with a series of shots being heard.

A nine year old child was with her parents at a shooting range, getting trained in the art of automatic weapons. Apparently, she was surprised by the recoil of a weapon set to automatic and the trainer was shot and then subsequently died as a result of the incident.

.... the parents meant only the best in training her to use a gun she would almost never have had to touch in her lifetime.

<yada yada yada>


<snip>The adults so utterly failed her.

Actually the parents succeeded in getting the kid to commit involuntary suicide. They were tired of having her around their necks like an albatross.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

In today's venture down the "That isn't a good idea" Street, we head to the state of Arizona.


A nine year old child was with her parents at a shooting range, getting trained in the art of automatic weapons. Apparently, she was surprised by the recoil of a weapon set to automatic and the trainer was shot and then subsequently died as a result of the incident.

.... the parents meant only the best in training her to use a gun she would almost never have had to touch in her lifetime.

<yada yada yada>


<snip>The adults so utterly failed her.

Actually the parents succeeded in getting the kid to commit involuntary suicide. They were tired of having her around their necks like an albatross.

no, no

It was the nine year girl who shot her instructor.

You're thinking of the eight year boy who shot himself.

(and the absurb evil of even having two incidents occur in life that can be described as so.)

 

[fromderinside]

Actually the parents succeeded in getting the kid to commit involuntary suicide. They were tired of having her around their necks like an albatross.

no, no

It was the nine year girl who shot her instructor.

You're thinking of the eight year boy who shot himself.

(and the absurb evil of even having two incidents occur in life that can be described as so.)

Thanks :devil-smiley-029:

OK. They parents had it in for the Heston. Its just not as funny or ironic.

Yeah it was the eight year old's parents who wanted to get rid of him, so destructive and all.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Yeah it was the eight year old's parents who wanted to get rid of him, so destructive and all.

To be fair, we can't say that the girl's parents didn't also want to get rid of her - they may have just been less effective at it and an innocent man died because they were somehow unable to just stuff the kid in a sack full of rocks and throw her in a river like normal parents.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Idiots!

Barrel climb is a problem even for an adult.

I've seen a fairly simple, albeit ugly solution: Fasten something to the barrel, chain that something to a supporting framework. There is enough play in the chains that the gun can be aimed normally but not enough play to allow it to point in an unsafe direction.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Idiots!

Barrel climb is a problem even for an adult.

I've seen a fairly simple, albeit ugly solution: Fasten something to the barrel, chain that something to a supporting framework. There is enough play in the chains that the gun can be aimed normally but not enough play to allow it to point in an unsafe direction.

Let me get this straight

YOU think the problem here is a failure to chain the gun?

 

[credoconsolans]

Guy should have hung onto the Uzi while she fired it full auto and let her get used to the recoil.

Dumb on his part and the parents' part for wanting their daughter to take a "speed lesson" in shooting guns.

Sad for the little girl who will live the rest of her life reliving the experience of shooting someone in the head at point blank range.

RIP big guy.

 

[Ford]

Guy should have hung onto the Uzi while she fired it full auto and let her get used to the recoil.. never let a 9 year old kid fire a fully automatic weapon, and should have kicked the parents out of the range for being irresponsible fuckwits.

Fixed...

 

[DBT]

I can't understand how even a half competent instructor could possibly make such a stupid error.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Idiots!

Barrel climb is a problem even for an adult.

I've seen a fairly simple, albeit ugly solution: Fasten something to the barrel, chain that something to a supporting framework. There is enough play in the chains that the gun can be aimed normally but not enough play to allow it to point in an unsafe direction.

Let me get this straight

YOU think the problem here is a failure to chain the gun?

That had to be intentional.

***

The parents are probably distraught now that their precious child no longer wants to shoot guns. Perhaps there's a good AZ therapist that can help. They can put the child in a room with toy guns and observe her interactions. Perhaps some children's books on how we cope with killing those closest to us.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

The parents are probably distraught now that their precious child no longer wants to shoot guns. Perhaps there's a good AZ therapist that can help. They can put the child in a room with toy guns and observe her interactions. Perhaps some children's books on how we cope with killing those closest to us.

It's not that bad. The person she killed was only someone she'd met a few minutes earlier. It's not like she accidentally shot her dog or something.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Does this mean we can finally have 9 year olds operating steel presses and other heavy industrial equipment now. You know, cuz FREEDOM!

 

[bleubird]

nm