A shooting instructor has died after a nine-year-old girl accidentally shot him in the head as he taught her how to use a submachine gun.
Charles Vacca, a father and veteran from Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was airlifted to hospital on Monday morning after the little girl shot him with a Uzi at an outdoor shooting range in Dolan Springs.
'Vacca was standing next to the girl while he was instructing her how to use the weapon when the accident happened,' a Mohave County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told BNO News.
'Further investigations determined [that when] the girl pulled the trigger on the automatic Uzi, the recoil sent the gun over her head, and the victim was shot.'
I am completely lost as to the logic of teaching a nine year old how to fire an Uzi.
When in the hell would she ever need to utilize this skill?
I am sorry this man died, but honestly he brought it on himself.
The one I really feel sorry for is this young girl, who will have to go through the rest of her life with the memory of this man's brains splattering all over the walls after she pulled the trigger.
Traumatizing your nine year old at ten in the morning. Now THAT is great parenting.
The stupidity of the parents and the instructor is stunning. The instructor was a Veteran so he had to know how much of a recoil the Uzi had. How could he have agreed to teach the 9yo child to shoot that weapon? The child will suffer from that experience all of her life.
ReplyDeleteShe may not "suffer from that experience all of her life". The Right-wing is remarkably philosophical about accidental shooting deaths, and after adults have drummed into the child's head that the lucky dead instructor is in a much better place with Jesus, she won't feel so bad.
DeleteThe machine pistol (not gun) is a one handed weapon for adults. The one pictured is not the wrong one as it has a forward hand grip what the girls Uzi did not have. Automatic weapons put up to the left as the cartridges are expelled to the right but instructor stood to her left. He should have stood behind her reaching around her to steady the weapon assuming you think a 9YO should fire this type of weapon. She should be firing a single shot .22 or a slug gun. She can fire the Uzi when she is 16 or older. I am a retired infantry officer from Australia.
DeleteWell all I can say is that a 9 year old shouldn't be shooting a fully automatic weapon.. Period.. And the instructor shouldn't have been standing where he was.. He was trying to make a dollar off a little girls parents that I'm sure she begged them to shoot the gun.. I have a daughter of my own and I know 1st hand how kids in general get their ways.. I don't think the parents should be punished. I just think the instructor should've done is instuctioning a little safer.. Sad no dought but u can't blame the girls parents.. They thought it was safe or they would've never let her do it. As did the instuctor
DeleteThis shooting is a tragedy.
DeleteBut it was also totally preventable.
What type of responsible gun range allows a 9 year old child to shoot an Uzi; they could have/ should have refused.
What type of responsible instructor would ever consent to teach a 9 year old to shoot an Uzi?
and then there are the parents.
Responsible parents do not put an Uzi in the hands of a 9 year old child.
I grew up in Texas with guns.
My three (now adult) children all are gun owners.
We never allowed them (as 9 year olds) to touch/shoot or be around a loaded weapon.
these parents are to blame.
I am very sorry for this child.
Give her a medal for hitting the target. On the other hand, with an Uzi, it's hard to miss at that close range.
ReplyDeleteChild abuse. If he weren't dead, the instructor should be prosecuted. And the shooting range has some exposure to civil liability here.
ReplyDeleteAnd the parents? They LET her participate in this "tourist activity".
DeleteYeah, the parents too. Children are taken away because they're left unattended in a car but it's just fine to put them into a situation where they can easily kill or maim someone? That's America!
DeleteCan you belive it! that poor little girl! why is a 9 year old doing on a gun range enyway arnt you to be 16 ? dont know for shur
DeleteThis is what happens when useless tourists touch firearms! She as all Americans should be taught in gun safety. To many useless people in this country!
DeleteWhat earthly reason would there be for a nine-year-old girl to learn how to shoot an Uzi - or any weapon for that matter? Child should be removed from the care of such irresponsible parents.
ReplyDeleteApparently, it is a tourist attraction. Eat here and kill someone.
DeleteHumans can be incredibly stupid. How in the world did we manage to evolve?
ReplyDeleteIt appears we are now on the way back, doesn't it?
DeleteI read that these people are tourists from New Jersey, and had stopped at the range as it is a tourist trap between the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. And that the gun was on single fire and she did OK, and then the instructor changed it to fire multiple times with huge kickback! She's lucky she didn't kill more than one person, if it was firing over her head and all over the place. People are so stupid.
DeleteShe's lucky she wasn't hurt or killed. Her parents should lose custody.
DeleteSad for that child to kill someone. How will she take it? Will it turn her off or will she hunger for more cheap thrills/
ReplyDeleteot
Keep reminding everyone of the real Sarah Palin.
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2014/08/sarahpac-identified-as-one-of-five.html
Thanks to G for all he does!
This makes me just LIVID! WhyTF is a little girl being encouraged to shoot a goddamn machine gun? How can her parents justify this? How can that shooting range allow this? It's just ludicrous, ignorant and stupid to allow such an activity.
ReplyDeleteAnd, once again, a family is torn apart, children are left fatherless, a child is ruined for life, and the NRA is taking it all to the bank.
He survives the military to be taken down by a small girl who is encouraged to use this weaponry like it's perfectly expected and 'normal'? Makes me sick to my stomach to see how guns are becoming a many times a day horrific tragedy and for some reason NO ONE is protecting the children from this lunacy.
Darwin was right. As usual.
ReplyDeleteThere is something immoral about teaching a child to use an Uzi and even more so considering the instructor was a veteran. Didn't he get enough of killing when in the military?
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
So you are driving down the road and see the sign for Bullets and Burgers. Sounds like fun! What could go wrong? The way this turned out probably a good thing it wasn't the heavier ordnance being exercised. What this place looks like from the road: www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/shooting-instructor-dies-after-being-accidentally-shot-girl
ReplyDeleteYoutube of a visit there:
"An afternoon excursion through the Mojave Desert via the Hoover Dam into Arizona to shoot a wide variety of weapons with local Las Vegas pick ups and returns included and All American Burger at their on site restaurant. www.bulletsandburgers.com Speciality Guns featured in this site include Deuce/M@.50 cal, Barrett .50 cal, M-203 Grenade Launcher as well as a variety of Machine Guns."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r-KBaAt0NM
Hope they allow 5 year old kids to throw live hand grenades. Sarah will take Trig to try it out.
DeleteCognitive dissonance; an Uzi in the hands of a child whose fleece jacket is covered in peace signs.
ReplyDeleteBingo.
DeleteNine year olds should be playing with bicycles and Legos, not Uzis.
ReplyDeleteI am repulsed and outraged at what the gun worshipers have done to this country.
Sarah hasn't taught her spawn to shoot straight for fear they're target would be her. Although she did ask Levi how to use his pistol. Sarah, "'Mrs. Robinson", Palin, have you no shame. Let's see some more pictures of Jill or has she bolted already.
ReplyDeletethank you george mutha_fukin' bush for allowing the automatic weapons ban to expire -
ReplyDeletebrainless fukin' sock puppet ..
NFA weapons like select fire Uzi involved here weren't affected by the Brady Bill "weapons ban" or any Bush-era legislation.They have always been legal. Highly regulated but legal.
DeleteFuckin' pussy, fight with your hands. Fuckin' pussy.
DeleteShe was probably a *thug* with a criminal record...
ReplyDeleteCouldn't be, she was White. RWNJ clowns don't believe Whites can be thugs.
DeleteThis may haunt her forever.
ReplyDeleteMay?
DeleteSounds like the instructor failed at his job. The only bad thing is this child will have the memory.
ReplyDeleteParents videoed the whole thing on their cell phones. Its on YouTube now, and in a NY Daily News story.. Sick to watch. Police have it too.
ReplyDeleteInstant karma.
ReplyDelete+2 for John Lennon reference.
DeleteWhen a parent tells me little Suzie or Billy wants to take riding lessons, I launch into a detailed list of things to check about the stable and riding instructors before the kid ever gets near the place. Start with an unannounced visit. Check the condition of the animals. Chat with everyone from stable hands to the neighbors down the road..... and on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteOK. I'm a safety freak. But horses are dangerous and parents need to make informed decisions. I can't even begin to think about everything I would have to know about a gun range and instructor before letting any kid within a half mile.
Every activity a kid participates in has risks. We can't keep them wrapped in cotton wool. But investigating the proposed activity is the parents' job.
Crying tonight for that little girl.
You are correct; you are a FREAK. Animals are inherently not completely predictable. But horses also aren't inherently dangerous as in fatal.
DeleteMistreated horses can be unpredictable. That's why the above commenter checks out the stables and owner, etc.
DeleteIt's called due diligence and not freakish.
You can break your neck and become mained or dead - even experience riders can have accidents.
DeleteAccidental gun death?
ReplyDeleteJust another day in 'Merica.
This country is fucking insane.
And we recoil and act superior when we see pics of foreign children holding weapons...
It was only a few years ago that it was a father and son in the same scenario (I believe the son was 7 or 8). The result was much sadder to me - the boy, unlike this girl, failed to keep his elbows straight, and the Uzi came up under his own chin, killing him thoroughly.
ReplyDeletelol as opposed to killing him incompletely?
DeleteNo - just kidding. I get ya!
Well... her dad was an incompetent gun instructor.
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert (although I occasionally go to the firing range for target practice) but even I know that the recoil on an Uzi is too much for a 9 year old. Or even a grown person who's unprepared.
Chalk another one up for the Darwin.
Again, the word "accident" being tossed as an excuse. It's called "Child Abuse". Girls with Guns..... who wears clothes that say that? Oh, that's right, Sarah Palin. Another senseless death and lifetime of grief for an innocent child "taught" to use a product meant to kill.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if she will really get it - or will she be told it was god's will or some other religious brainwashed shit that will fuck her up even more by the time she is 40??
DeleteWhen are these idiots going to wake up, children do not have the motor skills to handle guns. In MI they lowered the age to hunt with a rifle to ten- let the accidents begin.
ReplyDeleteWatching that video just shows how reckless it was. There were no safeguards in place--if it wasn't her, it was going to be someone else.
ReplyDeleteGun fail at the Alaska State Fair.
ReplyDeletewww.adn.com/article/20140826/police-man-accidentally-shoots-himself-state-fair-parking-lot
As my husband says,
ReplyDelete"One less person to in the war to stop the idiocracy"
I say this is Darwin award worthy. The recoil of an Uzi to a 9 year old girl was not thought about??
My 16 year old son says the dad is sayin'
ReplyDelete"That's mah Gurrrlll!!
RW parent reads the exact same story and says: "Bullets AND Burgers?!?!?! KIDS!!!! GET IN THE TRUCKSTER!!!! WE'RE GOING TO ARIZONA!!!!!"
ReplyDeleteActually, Gryphen, the article stated that it was an outdoor shooting range. So she won't have the memory of his brains splattered all over the walls, but rather all over the cacti.
ReplyDeleteMy niece is around this girl's age and I don't know if I'd let her handle my hot glue gun, let alone a damn UZI.
ReplyDeleteJennifer K
+100
DeleteI'm with Anita. To many of these negligent incidents are called accidents. BS! The parents should be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteThis even made the news here in Germany - with a lot of head-shaking and heavy use of the words "unbelievable" and "gun-crazy".
ReplyDelete