Little Girl Accidentally Kills Her Instructor At Shooting Range
[guest post by Dana]
A 9-year-old girl learning to fire a submachine gun accidentally killed her instructor at a shooting range when the weapon recoiled over her shoulder, according to Arizona authorities.
The instructor, 39-year-old Charles Vacca, died at a hospital Monday night after he was shot in the head.
The gun range where the accident took place, permits children as young as age 8 to shoot as long as they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Sam Scarmardo, operator of shooting range Bullets and Burgers explained:
Our guys are trained to basically hover over people when they’re shooting,” Scarmardo said. “If they’re shooting right-handed, we have our right-hand behind them ready to push the weapon out of the way. And if they’re left-handed, the same thing.”
Gun experts question why a little girl was handling an Uzi in the first place due to its powerful recoil:
It’s always the supervision,” said Greg Danas, president of Massachusetts-based G&G Firearms. “But you also have gun enthusiasts running businesses where they place firearms in the hands of the uninformed, whether they’re 9-year-old kids who are not capable or adults. It all stems from gun enthusiasts running businesses that require a level of professionalism and education. The unexpected with firearms is something that’s only learned through years of being a trainer, not a gun enthusiast.”
Danas questioned why the instructor in Arizona was standing immediately to the left of the Uzi, which would have recoiled in that direction.
“It’s an awful shame,” he said. “He shouldn’t have been to the left side of the gun… But that child should not have been shooting anything other than a single-shot firearm.”
Further:
Greg Block, who runs California-based Self-Defense Firearms Training, said not only was the Uzi the wrong gun to use — “That’s not a kid’s gun” — but that instructors should stand to the rear and to the right of the shooter.
“He was literally in the line of fire,” Block said of the instructor. “He did pretty much everything wrong, and I don’t like saying that because it cost the man his life.”
Regarding any parental culpability, Chief Deputy Mohave County Attorney Jace Zack stated:
“They trusted the instructor to know what he was doing, and the girl could not possibly have comprehended the potential dangers involved.”
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (4dbf62) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:04 pmJust the kind of stuff the Left needs. It doesn’t matter how many people die in swimming pools each year.
http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/water-safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html
But guns don’t pilot themselves. Such a sad story.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:13 pmI don’t have a problem with a little girl at a firing range, but I honestly don’t get why a parent would feel it necessary to let her shoot such a gun. She’s a little girl, 9-years old, why not a single shot .22 instead…
Dana (4dbf62) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:23 pmI don’t know anything about the family, or the girl’s background, or anything else. I’m not an armament purist, but I get uncomfortable at the wedge of “what firearm is appropriate.” My instinct is to agree with you, Dana, but I wonder about instincts from my heart.
I’ve never fired an automatic weapon, and I have been shooting since I was ten years old.
What upsets me the most is how this will be used to politicize a tragedy. But there is sadly nothing new about that.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:29 pmI have taken classes at two ranges, both with NRA trained instructors. Neither range would have permitted this, due to multiple safety risks. In fact, they required some decent measure of competence regarding the verbal instruction before range time is even permitted.
tek (87ce8f) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:30 pmThe Left will quietly view this as “one more dead gun nut” amid the crocodile tears.
Kevin M (b357ee) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:31 pmThis is just sad. At least in this example the kid wasn’t the one that died as in the last example I can remember. As a life-long shooter and Army veteran, I would never, ever put a weapon like that in the hands of a child or even a teen. If you want them to get the sense of shooting something powerful, you put them behind a long rifle in a fixed rest that can’t be moved. Small, high powered weapons like that Uzi are just too mobile and even full adults have issues controlling the recoil from them.
Now that kid has to live with a death at her hands that she bears absolutely no responsibility for. That’s the real tragedy here. This is going to affect her profoundly for many years, if not forever. If it weren’t for that I’d happily say that the nitwit who handed her the gun got exactly what he deserved, but she sure didn’t.
Freedom isn’t Free and sometimes it means that idiots get to engage in idiocy leading to tragedy, but it’s still less tragic than the alternatives that the loss of Freedom would bring on a much larger scale.
Richard (01a2f5) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:34 pmWhat a sad story. Hard to understand how a seasoned guy wouldn’t anticipate some recoil in the hands of a little girl?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:37 pmHonestly, Simon, I’ve shot before and my kids shoot, but I really just don’t like guns. I realize that in some conservative circles just saying that is akin to being a bleeding-hearted liberal and certainly not a supporter of 2nd amend (which I am). As there is a built-in tension between natural man and God, so too is there a tension between me and such powerful weapons. But I support your right to have one.
With that, I don’t like people carrying in public, either. Are you just trying to make a statement, warn me, or feeling a bit powerful? I don’t know you, how impulsive are you ? How much do you feel the need to prove yourself? No matter though, I will still support your right to carry.
Dana (4dbf62) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:43 pmNow that kid has to live with a death at her hands that she bears absolutely no responsibility for. That’s the real tragedy here. This is going to affect her profoundly for many years, if not forever.
This.
Dana (4dbf62) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:45 pmI do not understand how the instructor did this. An UZI is going to rise up and to the left; he stood directly in her line of fire if she lost control, which she did. She fired some single shots just fine. At that point, take out the magazine, put in a magazine with two rounds. Have her fire them in full auto. Again. The a magazine with three rounds. After she’s done that a couple of times, a magazine with five rounds. Then … after fifteen or twenty minutes (maybe a hundred rounds, always with control) then she gets a full magazine to hose with. While the instructor stands to her right! (I assume the grip safety was working and she managed to hold it closed, while it went up, left, and over her shoulder.)
Yes, she’s going to be a poster child for having done it the wrong way.
I don’t understand what he could have been thinking. Darwin Award, for him, for sure. Maybe for Mom and Dad, too (more likely Dad; maybe he asked the instructor to move for the video.)
htom (412a17) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:48 pmsheer idiocy on the part of the dead guy…
and what htom said.
redc1c4 (abd49e) — 8/27/2014 @ 5:53 pmI sense a bidding war looming between AFV and 1000 Ways to Die.
Rodney King's Spirit (8b9b5a) — 8/27/2014 @ 6:04 pmOh yeah, and that Darwin thing at work.
Rodney King's Spirit (8b9b5a) — 8/27/2014 @ 6:06 pm“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Robert A. Heinlein
nk (dbc370) — 8/27/2014 @ 6:18 pmAaargh. Most reasonable adults — here and elsewhere — realize that having a 9-year-old girl firing an Uzi is probably a bad idea. It should end there, and this horrible incident should be a sad reminder of why certain things should be left to adults. But no, in America of 2014 we are going to need federal legislation which makes it illegal for a child under 13 (16? 18? 21?) to fire a certain ill-defined type of weapon, because these days every single tragedy needs to be followed up by legislation which purports to make that tragedy impossible to repeat.
No one deserved to lose their life over this, but the colossal stupidity of all the adults involved here makes life a whole lot harder for the rest of us.
JVW (638245) — 8/27/2014 @ 6:38 pmThis sickens me, Sheer unadulterated idiocy on the part of all concerned, especially the girl’s parents and the gun instructor, came together to cause this tragedy. A child this age has no need or possible reason to learn to shoot an UZI. The girl is clearly not at fault, but by the same token I can’t imagine that she did not somehow instinctively know this weapon was not right or comfortable for her, and it’s too bad she did not just say “no”. And you’re right, Simon Jester, this unfortunate event will (and should) be examined, and also certainly will be politicized in a way to set legitimate gun rights back.
elissa (ae8c05) — 8/27/2014 @ 6:53 pmthis is like the opening scene of a tarantino movie
or maybe a flashback placed somewheres along the way for character development
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:26 pmHaving anyone firing a small , unmounted, submachinegun without proper training is an exceedingly bad idea, regardless of their sex, size, age, or previous firearms experience.
The problem is not that she was nine or that she was a girl or that she was small [citation required]. The problem is not UZI, not submachinegun, not 9mm, not … that it was a gun.
The problem is insanely bad training.
htom (412a17) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:38 pmYes, elissa, that is true. I think there is a certain Chicago mobster (well, close enough) who once said that we should never let a crisis go to waste.
I feel terribly for the families.
Dana (#9), I want to (as I always have) thank you for your clarity, fairness, and temperate manner of discussion. I admire your calm and style very much. In no way was anything I wrote intended as any sort of criticism of you or your post.
My concern has been historical. People who wish to restrict gun rights always seem to start with ideas that appear reasonable to them: no clip with more than 8 rounds, no weapons that “look” dangerous, etc. I knew very well you intended none of that.
But there are people who will, again, try to use this awful tragedy as a wedge.
Thank you for you comments and courtesy, as always.
Simon Jester (f38bd1) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:47 pmHaving anyone firing an unmounted, small submachine gun without proper training is a very bad idea, regardless of their age, size, sex, wealth, or other firearms experience. That she was a small nine year old girl is not the problem. That it was a small 9mm submachine gun is not the problem.
The problem is insanely, fatally, bad training.
If her family owns such a firearm, that would be a very good reason for her to learn how to fire it safely, and that’s not something you can completely learn from a book or a video.
htom (412a17) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:50 pmHuh. I thought #19 got lost in the intertubes, so typed it again. Sorry.
htom (412a17) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:52 pmSimon Jester,
No worries, I didn’t take your comment as criticism of me or my post, which of course you are free to do.
It is such an horrific accident and I just cannot imagine how a little girls absorbs and processes what she saw so up close – and what she did. I feel sympathy for her parents, too, in that they will live with an equally horrific burden of knowing they were responsible for her and the things they brought into her life. That would drive a sane parent mad.
And yes, it will be politicized, of course. Tomorrow should produce several op-eds screaming about gun control.
Dana (4dbf62) — 8/27/2014 @ 7:56 pmMe too.
I remember how I learned to hunt. Around when I was nine my uncle would pack me in on his back from the john boat to the duck blind. It was only later when I made that walk through the marsh myself I learned how hard that was for him. When I was eleven I took the hunter’s safety course. After that ny uncle let me borrow a 20 ga. break action single shot shotgun.
Point being in addition to learning about what to point the gun at and what not to point the gun at and what will happen if it goes off …(when I went through hunter’s safety back in Kali all those years ago one of the first lessons was what an arrow would do even if released at half-draw)… I didn’t have an official range instructor. My “hunting uncle” (remember when you used to have those) wasn’t range certified. Yet he died of natural causes several decades after he took the risk of lighting the fire under my @$$.
What was the kid doing starting off with an Uzi? You build up to Uzis. You start out with single shots. At least, that’s how everybody understood it when I was starting out.
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/27/2014 @ 8:18 pmif the piersmorgan whorefascists at cnn hadn’t pimped out the corpses of the dead newtown baby wazzles so gloriously hard
would this even be blogworthy today?
accidents happen
you don’t have to pick at them like voracious eagles going at the liver of Mr. Prometheus
accidents will happen next week too
as you know, it’s a mixed-up muddled-up shook-up world
(except for Lola)
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/27/2014 @ 8:34 pmDana, it’s easy to blame the trainer (I’m confused why he would have done this in the first place). But he is dead now, and I grieve for his loved ones.
It’s easy to blame the parents. But my guess—unless they are bad people—they will carry the guilt all of their lives.
But like you, I worry about the girl. “It wasn’t your fault” won’t help much.
I have been shooting, as I wrote before, for (sigh) many decades now. My elderly father (who taught me how to shoot) was gobsmacked at this story.
Then he thought for a while. During WWII, his older brother smuggled some kind of automatic weapon off the local base, and they all got drunk and shot it off down in a riverbed. They were all lucky they weren’t hurt or killed, he told me.
But they were grown ups. This is one of the definitions of the death of innocence for this poor girl.
The focus should be on her. But it won’t be.
Simon Jester (f38bd1) — 8/27/2014 @ 8:51 pmI have to oppose your view on this, Simon Jester.
The focus should be so off her I’m not even interested in knowing her name.
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/27/2014 @ 8:58 pmI’m sure that isn’t what you meant …
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/27/2014 @ 9:00 pmSteve, I meant that we should all hope for her healing, and even, perish the thought in these times, pray for her.
Simon Jester (f38bd1) — 8/27/2014 @ 9:07 pmSimon — I agree. I hope and pray she’s already getting good therapy about this. It is not her fault.
htom (412a17) — 8/27/2014 @ 10:08 pmShe’s nine. She won’t have issues with this unless adults around her create them for her. But idiot parents who take a nine-year old to a tourist trap that gives nine-year olds machine guns to have fun with are liable to be f***ups as parents in other ways too.
nk (dbc370) — 8/27/2014 @ 10:13 pmDone.
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/27/2014 @ 10:40 pmI’ve shot a .45acp UZI, and on full-auto.
askeptic (efcf22) — 8/27/2014 @ 11:10 pmI watched the video of the incident, and as Greg Block said, the instructor was not standing in the correct place, and he evidently had not prepared his student properly, as she was not assuming a correct position for firing.
You have to lean into the gun, and be prepared for the muzzle climb – she did neither before pulling the trigger.
His death was an unfortunate accident, and entirely preventable.
The girl will have a terrible memory to carry with her.
Sad.
Her parents should have taken her somewhere safe, like a national park
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/271694771.html
SPQR (c4e119) — 8/27/2014 @ 11:16 pmUmm, where is the stock?
I have had gun familiarization with a mini (or micro, I forget) uzi and there is a stock on both of them. The weapon jumps quite a bit even when you fire them as they were designed to be fired, which is with the stock firmly seated in the shoulder, and it would obviously be near-uncontrollable if the stock is removed. Add to that a weak shooter and its totally uncontrollable.
Again, where is the feckin stock?
Ursus Maritimus (839d42) — 8/27/2014 @ 11:27 pmProbably back in the rifle case.
askeptic (efcf22) — 8/27/2014 @ 11:36 pmUrsus, they don’t use stocks on TV shows, so I guess they aren’t badass.
I can’t say I’ve ever fired an uzi, but MP5s can’t be that different, and I know those are a handful if you don’t bury them into your shoulder like you’re supposed to.
Every time a someone drowns or is killed in a sport or really any other accident happens, it’s a worthy time to discuss how to do these tasks safely. I hope people reflect on gun safety, but of course I expect this story to be used as an example of how crazy gun culture is, even though accidents like this are so unusual. The solution is gun safety education in school.
Dustin (91c315) — 8/28/2014 @ 12:27 amAfter thinking about it, neither can I. I have fired a few Schmeissers, either the MP 38 or MP 40, and the H&K, but upon reflection I can’t distinctly recall ever firing an Uzi. So I should have said earlier that you start small and build up to something like an Uzi.
None of this is meant to make light of what the little girl must now be going through. Let alone the family of the range instructor.
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/28/2014 @ 5:41 amThe parents and the range operators should be charged, or horsewhipped, or both. Letting a 9 year old shoot an automatic weapon is, if not an outright criminal act, it’s so over-the-top monumentally stupid as to constitute grounds for rescinding the range’s license to operate. There is no reason on God’s green earth to put a submachine gun in the hands of a child. None.
ropelight (cdcdbf) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:00 amTotally agree, ropelight.
nk (dbc370) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:07 amWhat fool hands a nine-year-old a fully-automatic weapon? This was insane.
creeper (05fa10) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:16 amUrsus Maritimus, if you look closely at the start you can see the metal collapsible stock. It’s hard to see, but it’s there. But you guys are right. Anyone who would hand a fully automatic 9mm machine gun to a 9 year old, let alone a girl is an idiot. I’ve been shooting since I was 8, and I never held nor fired a machine gun till Vietnam. I fired a .45 Thompson and I could feel it getting away from me. And I was using an M24 at the time.
Hoagie (4dfb34) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:29 amCome on. This is a 9 year old American girl, so this won’t be the last man’s life she extinguishes without repercussion.
This is just the beginning.
I’m picturing the sad kabuki parade of social service personnel who are telling her, probably right this minute, she didn’t do anything wrong.
Yes she did.
OTOH that shooting instructor was a safety violator. Imagine the plethora of natal gun enthusiasts that guy sent out to shoot up the world.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:31 amI recall a similar incident. My cousin, brother, and I, borrowed a .22 bolt action rifle off the gun rack when no one was looking. We took it down to the river for some plinking. My brother was roughly the same age as this girl, so while cousin Brian and I were being very careful, even exaggeratingly so, to shoot into the natural berm of the river bank, my brother squeezes off a round into the sky in the general direction of hillside homes.
Worse, he chambered another round ready to do more, all the while ignoring Brian, and I yelling at him to stop what he’s doing.
Then my brother swings around indignant with the gun aimed in our general direction. We had to tackle the idiot and pry the gun out of his hands before he hurt somebody.
Nine year olds, regardless of gender, have no business being on a firing line.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:01 amToo bad he didn’t finish you off – just jokin’
ropelight (cdcdbf) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:05 amI agree with the other commenters to the extent that it is madness to give a nine year old a full auto weapon.
Where I may wander off the reservation is I don’t have a huge problem with nine year olds shooting guns. I know Africans who killed their first elephant at nine. I was a late bloomer; I didn’t kill my first Thanksgiving dinner until I was eleven.
First, I watched. Later when I had been given a gun to use, it was a break action which meant I only had one shot. So I had to make it count. Every shot was a deliberate act. Years later, I got my first repeating firearm. A Remington 870.
Full auto came much later. What were they thinking?
Steve57 (99bd31) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:54 amAn eleven-year old was convicted of second-degree murder for “borrowing” a .22 and doing something like papertiger’s cousin did. http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/17/us/michigan-boy-who-killed-at-11-is-convicted-of-murder-as-adult.html
nk (dbc370) — 8/28/2014 @ 9:33 amStupidist, most tone-deaf comparison ever. Please stop.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 8/28/2014 @ 10:59 amI’ve never had training in how to train others with a gun, but it always seemed obvious to me that when you teach even an adult how to shoot a semi-automatic pistol, you only put one bullet in it the first time. Because you don’t want the second round of a double-tap to fly off into someone’s head.
David Pittelli (b77425) — 8/28/2014 @ 12:46 pmDavid, that’s an interesting idea, though I don’t think many people follow that one. In this case they purposefully switched the weapon to full auto. They wanted the image of a little kid with a badass hail of gunfire. Probably for their facebook profile. They didn’t take their kid there to learn the fundamentals of marksmanship or gun safety. They wanted to show the kid doing something that would get them some attention. That’s what our culture is all about now.
It was otherwise bizarre to give a child that age control of something like that. It’s like teaching a 9 year old to drive by putting her at the wheel of a Corvette on the interstate.
Dustin (7f67e8) — 8/28/2014 @ 12:59 pmCarlitos, no, its a fine comparison as people accept exposing children to hazards that kill orders of magnitude more often.
SPQR (c4e119) — 8/28/2014 @ 3:56 pmi was thinking maybe all that weird fawning over Kendall Jones was maybe a more better comparison than swimmings
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 4:03 pmi like swimming though sometimes
but even though we have two pool guys what come every week the pool still has dirt in it on the bottom
i’m ok with it me personally cause i grew up with a pool and what’s a little dirt
but my friend F is all like no way would i ever get in that filthy pool
so, different people have different sensibilities about this sort of thing
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 4:07 pmi will say it never occurred to me that i’d ever need to articulate an opinion about handing uzis to nine-year-old little girls
which reminds me i haven’t seen the Hemsworth Red Dawn yet
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 4:17 pm49. The whole idea was to shoot off a hail of bullets. First she fired one bullet. taht worlked OK and then he put it on semi-automatic.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 8/28/2014 @ 4:28 pmUrsus Maritimus (839d42) — 8/27/2014 @ 11:27 pm
Again, where is the feckin stock?
It might not work as well as an amusement park feauture with the stock.
Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 8/28/2014 @ 4:29 pmwhat really sucks is Mattel already had Uzi Barbie ready to go for christmas
and now this happens
mississippi goddamn i tell u whut
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 5:50 pmThere is a stock visible in the video. Stocks for UZIs are primarily light L-shaped metal devices that fold for compactness when not in use. I’m not sure she used it correctly from the video. From the reports, she fired several single shots before it was switched from single-shot (semi-automatic)
mode to full automatic.
I hope they convince her she’s one of two victims.
htom (412a17) — 8/28/2014 @ 6:31 pmok all you momos just stop
NATIONAL SOROS RADIO is on the case
KIDS AT FIRING RANGES???? THREE QUESTIONS FOLLOWING FATAL SHOOTING
Is it common for kids to shoot guns at ranges?
Are there regulations governing who can shoot at ranges? (regulations are key)
How often do accidents like this happen?
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:12 pmI blame Marconi, happyfeet.
nk (dbc370) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:27 pmi would question that Mr. nk but National Soros Radio is very clear that there are only three questions
happyfeet (8ce051) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:29 pmI meant for the existence of NPR. Unforeseen consequences.
nk (dbc370) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:55 pmiPhones too.
nk (dbc370) — 8/28/2014 @ 7:56 pm1) Depends on the range. Some yes, some no.
htom (412a17) — 8/28/2014 @ 9:33 pm2) Yes
3) Very rarely
Why is that the stupidist (or even the stupidest) comparison ever, carlitos?
Patterico (9c670f) — 8/28/2014 @ 9:54 pmI will openly concur: Some people ARE too stupid to own guns. And in this case, that would be both the late instructor AND the parents.
This self-evident fact does not, in ANY way, argue for laws eliminating everyone’s right to own weapons, any more than the fact that lots and lots of stupid people own cars argues for eliminating the right to own a car.
Because, first off, if you see someone next to you driving with their phone to their ear, there’s a good chance (though not 100%) they’re too stupid to own a car.
Second off, a car is MUCH deadlier than any non-automatic gun ever made.
Smock Puppet, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d) — 8/28/2014 @ 10:11 pmI would not go quite this far. I would say that taking **undisciplined** children out shooting — at almost any age — “is an episode of Rescue 911 just waiting to happen.”
If you put a gun into the hands of a child, you damned sure teach them proper gun handling and safety first, and beat the snot out of them if they even LOOK like they’re thinking of ignoring it.
And you also damned sure have to key the gun used to the strength capacity of the child. Giving a child too much gun for their weight is just ephtarded.
Smock Puppet, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d) — 8/28/2014 @ 10:18 pmIts not totally easy to see on the video (well, hard for me at least) wether the stock is removed or just folded. Since I would have extended and used the stock if it was present, my conclusion was that it had been removed.
My question was intended to be slightly rethorical anyway, highlighting that the weapon without the stock used is at best borderline unusable and at worst lethally unsafe.
Ursus Maritimus (839d42) — 8/28/2014 @ 10:40 pmI’ve seen young children with their parents and 10/22 or something. The kids learn responsibility because their parents are serious about safety.
That’s a far, far, far cry from telling a kid to let ‘er rip on full auto or tossing them the keys to a Corvette.
Just as with a swimming pool, I want kids to learn responsibility and some degree of independence, so I don’t want to smother them to the point of ultimate perfect safety. But when these things happen, it’s wise to try to learn something about it.
Dustin (38f5d0) — 8/28/2014 @ 10:43 pmSigh. Swimming and hiking are ordinary activities which are reasonably safe with the exercise of ordinary care. Firearms are inherently dangerous and
nk (dbc370) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:19 amnot for f***witsrequire extraordinary care to avoid serious injury or death to yourself or others.Because swimming pools are designed for swimming and guns are designed for killing? Compare and contrast:
I- took my nine-year-old to the Y to go swimming.
– I took my nine-year-old to a burger place to fire an Uzi on full auto.
If you had to pick, who’s the better parent above? Who’s more likely to use a regulation car seat, not smoke around the kids, etc.? Be honest.
(In terms of fake words, I like stupidist.)
carlitos (c24ed5) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:25 amI note you didn’t object to it being “tone-deaf,” and for good reason. A nine-year-old kills a guy with an Uzi and conservatives talk about swimming pools. Any capable PR agency would cut you off at the knees for that nonsense.
carlitos (c24ed5) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:29 amNow I have a vivid image of an EEG in flatline. Who could have guessed?
gary gulrud (46ca75) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:35 amgary, are you psychic? Did you get a glimpse of the face of the person? Is it Joan Rivers?
nk (dbc370) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:37 amnk — in some parts of the USA, shooting is a more common recreational activity than swimming. If there were pools or lakes there, that might be different there, but that’s how the world is.
htom (412a17) — 8/29/2014 @ 9:22 amJeez, carlitos. I’m sorry that you didn’t get the point I intended. What bothers me is how the anti-gun people will seize upon this and use to a political end, when far, far more children are killed in more “acceptable” past times.
But objecting to those pasttimes does not advance an agenda.
I also made exceptionally clear how horrible the incident was for the families involved, and the child.
Mind you, you don’t have to like me. But I would gently suggest that there are far, far sillier, more heartless, or odd things posted regularly around here than my own contribution.
But to each their own.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/29/2014 @ 1:12 pmJust noodling here, but I did wonder why an experienced instructor would stand where he did.
askeptic (efcf22) — 8/29/2014 @ 1:35 pmCould it be that if he positioned himself to the shooter’s right he would have been in the camera’s way, and the parents asked him to move?
In the end though, his death is on him for not doing his job in a professional manner, which is what everyone – the range, the parents, the child – expected of him.
An awful tragedy, no matter what. I don’t know any of the people, and I wasn’t there, so attacking the various people is “from the heart” and thus I worry about reactive judgements (since so much of that approach is our problem these days). What I do know for certain is how awful this is and will be for the young girl. My friend nk feels she will be able to be okay, and I hope so.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/29/2014 @ 1:51 pmI saw in a news article somewhere that these things usually kick up and to the right — not the left.
So maybe there is no one conventional wisdom on how they recoil.
Patterico (9c670f) — 8/29/2014 @ 8:32 pm