Her family members were focused on the girl because they thought she was injured by the gun's recoil and didn't immediately realize instructor Charles Vacca had been shot until one of his colleagues ran over to him.
The shooting set off a powerful debate over youngsters and guns. Kids going on hunts with their elders is a rite of passage in rural America, but many people wondered what sort of parents would let a child handle a submachine gun.
The family, whose hometown hasn't been revealed by investigators, had taken a shuttle on Aug. 25 from Las Vegas south to the Last Stop range in White Hills, Arizona.
The report did not say why the family had gone to the range or why they let the girl handle the Uzi.
After arriving, the girl, her parents, sister and brother took a monster truck ride before heading out to the shooting range.
The girl's father was the first one in the party to handle a weapon. After he fired shots, Vacca instructed the girl on how to shoot the gun, showed her a shooting stance, and helped her fire a few rounds.
Then, he stepped back and let her hold the Uzi by herself. She fired the gun, and its recoil wrenched the Uzi upward, killing Vacca with a shot to the head, according to the report. The girl dropped the Uzi, and Vacca fell to the ground.
The girl ran toward her family, who huddled around her as she held her shoulder. Another instructor rushed over to help to Vacca. The other children were then taken away from the range, according to the report.
The report describes the family as shaken by the accident.
Riding monster trucks and busting a cap in the skull of your instructor with an Uzi.
Just another day in Arizona's redneck wonderland.
The poor kid did not even realize that she took a man's life, she was still freaked out that somebody had put a weapon much too powerful for her in her little hands.
White Trash Weekend in Las Vegas!!!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to learn the parent's motivation in choosing this shooting activity for their daughter. We know nothing about them and perhaps we should not be putting them in the white trash bin. The parent's identity has been protected. I can not imagine the guilt and the grief they are experiencing but this accident is about the WHY?
DeleteRJ in Brownbackstan
It was gods will.
DeleteHe is in a better place.
(this is snark btw)
This is madness. And it's all part of the gun industry's and ammosexual's effort to mainstream gun culture and casual gun use.
ReplyDeleteThe stories keep referring to 'gun instructor' but the perfunctory interaction described hardly qualifies as "instruction" any more than driving instruction is simply showing the 'student' what the pedals do.
Is there any other activity with lethal potential that doesn't require thorough instruction with sensible age-appropriate restrictions?
Very well said BJC! That IS what it's all about - the "effort to mainstream gun culture and casual gun use." We can't let that happen.
DeleteIt's called building future consumers. NRA and gun manufacturers.
DeletePropaganda works.
Very popular country singer, Miranda Lambert, has a tattoo of pistols with angel wings.
DeleteIt's supposed to be tough and cute. I think it's just more glamorization of ugly, nasty guns.
Even police officers and military personnel aren't "in love" with their guns (for the most part, I know this is a generality).
My point being, they know these are WEAPONS used as the very last resort (except in Ferguson [hat tip]).
Since when is this a "fun, family" day out?
I went to a gun class and then had to shoot at an indoor range. I needed two pairs of earplugs and it was actually quite traumatic. I thought I would get some kind of rush or something, but I just hated every second.
I thought that I should go back to practice, and I would ask my husband to come to help me get through it (he's ex-Army).
But to bring our child?
Like she needed to learn that?
More fear mongering too. "Preppers" need to be ready.
And this is not what "teaching a kid to hunt and shoot" looks like. It's a process, not a quick thrill.
ReplyDelete1) give kid a stick to walk with on hunts. Tell them to pretend it's a gun and has to be carried and treated properly.
2) Let kid help clean kill and guns - the not so fun part of it.
3) give kid appropriately sized gun and let them carry it unloaded on hunt as if it were loaded at all time. Observe for compliance.
4) let kid hunt with gun.
That process can take a couple seasons - like from 12-15 or 16 y o. Back at home, gun gets locked and only parent have access.This was just cheap thrill seeking. Place would have been much better off using UZi that fired lasers with fake kick. And the "instructor" would be alive and the 9 y o untraumatized. Watch these places go out of business as no sane company will insure them at any affordable price. Yeah!.
I agree 6:42, that's exactly how it should be done. But it's possible this family isn't a hunting family (uzi?) and were just shooting for the entertainment, which doesn't sound too entertaining to me, but... whatever happened to laser tag for kids that age?
DeleteThis had nothing to with teaching how to hunt. The instructor obviously made a terrible decision in letting this kid try to shoot an uzi, it isn't any more complicated than that.
Delete"teaching a kid to hunt"?
DeletePlease notice the paper target. Ooops!
It seems an instructor would know not to give a weapon to a person that could not physically handle it.
DeleteThere are just some really stupid people out there. Like that moron who brought PTSD soldiers to the shooting range and ended up getting shot.
Not very good ideas.
Darwin called and they answered.
(But that little girl and her family - along with the instructor's family - will suffer forever. Good Thinking, Dude!).
I agree with you 100%. My family were BIG hunters until the day that my uncle (oh, about 60 years ago now when he was 12) shot and killed his cousin while they were climbing a water tower to get a better shot at rabbits in a field. Somehow they all had guns and no one used them anymore after that. Still the guns exist and all went to my dad who died this summer. I've no idea where they will go now.
DeleteNo one was teaching their kids to hunt in this story. No one hunts with an Uzi. Uzi's are weapons of war and are manufactured for the explicit use of killing people - period.
Has anyone here seen the old movie "His Girl Friday" with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell? The scene where she finally interviews the simple minded killer Earl Williams, who says that he killed his victim because of "Production for Use" - that's what guns are produced for - is way too topical today. My hubby and I tend to go with the "What's wrong with my wife (husband)? She's good enough for me!" line for a laugh. If you don't laugh, you're gonna cry...
I love His Girl Friday!
DeleteAs a kid, I would have preferred to have gone whale watching, or camping, or taken a trip to the Smithsonian. How sad for all of them.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteHeck, there are some pretty cool ghost towns they could have gone too instead too! Ones where they might have actually seen some ghosts.
DeleteM from MD
Unfortunately this kid will always have to live with this. Even though it wasn't her fault, she'll still feel a false sense of guilt knowing that someone got shot and killed by a gun that was in her hands.
ReplyDeleteIt's like anyone accidentally hurting someone, backing over a child in a driveway, etc. The person who was driving the vehicle can never get that image out of their minds and live with regret, grief and a false sense of guilt. Many need therapy.
But, these 'fun' ranges will dig their heels in and keep encouraging families and kids (who don't yet have the strength to keep the gun from kicking), to shoot targets with a real weapon. Redneck fun above all else.
I feel for kids who are desensitized to "dead things" from age 2. Anytime I see a pic of a toddler sitting on a carcass, or playing with a dead animal, I cringe and think, "they make toys for a reason."
Deleteshame
There is living proudly as a redneck and then there is disrespecting once living beings
Did anybody else "experience" the bow and arrow at camp or PE?
DeleteI remember trying to pull that string back so far while trying to keep the arrow right next to the string?
And then you let it go and you saw how well you did with the target?
That is less dangerous, less expensive and just as much fun (for a child, at least!) than shooting a very loud, smelly gun that may or may not hurt their shoulder (or, y'know, kill. Still dangerous, but not *quite* as deadly as a gun, yes?)
Dads and moms can help their kids with a bow and arrow. Not so much military artillery...
And to think my fellow PTO mom is close friends with the instructor. :/
ReplyDeleteSmall world.
...was...
DeleteTrue.
Deletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/jared-loughner-who-shot-gabrielle-giffords-in-tucson-ranted-online/
ReplyDeleteSomehow I find it hard to believe that the parents were completely unaware that anything had happened to the "instructor." They spoke to reporters with their attorney present. I have two big questions. First of all, why would anyone come up with the "fun" concept of "burgers and bullets" with beer as an added thriller for those over 21? And secondly, why would parents ever take their child/children to such a facility or, worse yet, allow a child to even hold an Uzi? Maybe that's why the attorney was present; they feared questions about their limited parenting skills.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
I'm sorry, WHAT?
DeletePoint #1. The above article stipulates "...and didn't immediately realize instructor Charles Vacca had been shot until one of his colleagues ran over to him." That is a far cry from "...were completely unaware...".
I am not trying to reduce the horrible aspects of this accident. I am trying to get people to stop attempting - consciously or otherwise - to make things appear worse then they are. The real facts are bad enough and we don't even know all of them yet!
Point #2. Where did you get the "..."fun" concept of "burgers and bullets" with beer as an added thriller for those over 21? I read that article three times and the word beer is NOT in it.
Point #3. THIS I can completely concur with! It's just plain insanity.
Point #4. Ever think that perhaps, just perhaps, the attorney might be a friend of the family's or even a MEMBER of the family? Maybe I am wrong on this, but I do not recall reading anything explaining why a lawyer was with them.
Then why wasn't he mentioned as a friend or family member, but a lawyer? huh?
DeleteWow. Making excuses for the parents. Who woulda thunk it. I bet the same people who believed Michael Brown deserved to be executed in Ferguson are filled with sorrow for the parents of this child.
Delete9:30 - nowhere have I seen anyone make a statement that 'Michael Brown deserved to be executed' other than in your post. In fact the only time the word 'executed' has been used is by folks like yourself who want to believe Brown was shot in broad daylight for no reason at all- even though truly nobody on the outside has any verifiable information yet as to what really happened.
Delete@ 9:21
DeleteWHO CARES? There has been no statement one way or the other as to why the lawyer was there. Why speculate suspiciously? Drawing stupid conclusions from NO information is asking for trouble and is nothing more than rumor mongering.
@ 9:59
DeleteThank you. I was wondering where that reference to beer might have come from, considering all the innuendoes and speculation being tossed about.
Oh, and back to Beaglemom. I was a member at one time of a gun club who had a full restaurant and gun range. NO ONE was allowed anywhere near the range after having even WALKED into the restaurant.
There were several membership cancellations until it got through certain thick skulls that alcohol and guns didn't mix. Admittedly, that was 20 years ago when weapons owners seemed to have more intelligence.
Here is a picture of the monster truck. White trash? Show your support "Valley Trash" Sarah!
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/bulletsandburgerslv/photos/pcb.945414678818734/945412988818903/?type=1&theater
" It is official!!!! Bullets and Burgers is now a Guinness World Records holder for the Worlds Longest Monster Truck!!! Don't miss your chance to experience this Guinness World Record first hand at Bullets and Burgers!!!! It is more than just an experience it's an Adventure!!!"
https://www.facebook.com/bulletsandburgerslv/posts/945414678818734
Bullets, Burgers and Beer, sounds like a fun family place. Lock up all Chuck E Cheeses and open a franchise of this place, guaranteed money maker. How many classroom and behind the wheel hours of "instruction" does it take for the PRIVILEGE to drive a car? We don't instruct 9 year olds because they're too young to drive. Same with the RIGHT to bear arms.
DeleteIf someone "accidentally" shoots someone dead with permission to touch a gun from the parents, why are their names and home towns not published?
I read somewhere, that 'shooting an Uzi' was on the nine y/o 'bucket list'.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Every 9y/o has a bucket list, and every 9y/o wants to shoot an Uzi...
Whatever happened with 'going to Disneyland', or 'going to Nine Flags', etc...
My thoughts exactly! Whatever happened to parents saying "NO, you're too young for that". Bullets and Burgers, the instructor and the parents were all negligent and the child will pay the price for their negligence and stupidity forever. She won't ever forget it.
DeleteThat's not something on a kid's radar unless it's on the parent's radar.
DeleteLike, joining the KKK.
I remember my dad yelling at me not to go near broken glass on the kitchen floor.
I can't imagine Dad handing me the Uzi after he was done.
If it were a package deal sold by some hotel in Las Vegas, that should come out. How the sale is being packaged with other "fun" things, in the name of tourism. Regarding the video, i did not hear the instructor say "hold on tight", or any other counsel over the potential kick. Maybe he did say something before the multiple fire. She goes from 1 shot at a time to multiple fire. The girl Lost contact with the gun with one of her hands, the gun jerked out of control as she had one of her young hands on it. Who is selling these tour packages in Las Vegas?
ReplyDeleteArizona State Rep. Proposes Ban On Giving Kids Machine Guns
ReplyDeleteAn Arizona lawmaker this week said that she plans to introduce legislation that would help keep automatic weapons of of the hands of children after a 9-year-old accidentally shot and killed an instructor with an Uzi at an Arizona shooting range.
"I'm disgusted that we even need such a law — that parents can't be trusted to not give a machine gun to a 9-year-old girl," Rep. Victoria Steele (D) told the Phoenix New Times.
Steele has not yet drawn up the legislation, but plans to propose a ban on giving a machine gun to anyone under the age of 16.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/arizona-children-machine-guns-bill
I hope she gets it to pass. Arizonastanians love their guns, and stopping 9 year olds is opening a slippery slope. (NRA probable excuse) And besides, it was an "accident"
DeleteI feel for children growing up in a family where they are taught evangelical religion and guns are good.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for parents to sue the range for bruising their daughter's shoulder in three...two... one...
ReplyDeleteTh fact that the target was shaped like a person, and not a bullseye, says it all: That the singular purpose for firing a gun is to KILL a living being, whether animal or human. This was not a "fun" activity. It was training a future killer.
ReplyDeleteJesus. Sure thing Corning, they are training future killers. Or... maybe it is just a target range, and nobody really feels trained as a future killer when they are done.
Delete@11:20-
DeleteJesus back atcha!
There's a difference between a ROUND target and a target shaped as a PERSON, correct?
Just like there is a difference between a Bullseye and a Surveyor's mark, right, Branrah?
2:34 and a target in the silhouette of a person automatically is training anyone that shoot at it as a future killer?... That is the inference, you are automatically trained as a future killer if you shoot at it? You folks really like to stretch your utter ridiculousness.
DeleteI am also bothered that no one thought it inappropriate to have a child shooting at an image of a person, so it's not just Corning's thought. Whatever happened to round targets?
DeletePeople don't realize that an Uzi is an actual deadly weapon I guess. The parents were really stupid to let a young child fire a weapon that many adults would have a hard time controlling. The attendant. Was NOT a weapons "instructor" or he would have known how insane it was to let a child fire a semi-automatic. Burger and Bullets was an accident waiting to happen. EVERYONE involved in this accident shares some blame.
ReplyDeleteDarwinism. Thinning the herd, fun for the entire family!!
ReplyDeleteYou encapsulated my thoughts in a few words.
DeleteTHank you.
But that's not Darwinism. Darwinism is when you kill yourself. She'd have to have killed herself. In this case, I think it's second-degree manslaughter, charge the range owner, and the parents.
DeleteNo, Otto.
DeleteYou put yourself in the positron to be killed: Darwinism.
Like the people who have their friends shoot at them in their new Bullet proof vest. .. And it fails.
This man should never have given a child a murder weapon. His murder weapon. Result of his actions.
Uh huh. Sure.
ReplyDeleteJust shows how far behind the U.S. education system is. Even in Afghanistan by the age of nine all the kids have been trained to fire a grenade launcher.
ReplyDeleteShe shot the Uzi in single-mode without a problem. The problem occurred when the instructor put the weapon in auto-mode.
ReplyDeleteYES! exactly. Uzi's are perfectly fine in a child's hand, as long as it's not set on "auto". This whole tragedy could have easily been avoided.
DeleteThat's some world-class parenting right there - by George:
ReplyDeleteyou wanna teach yer daughter to swim you throw her skinny ass right out there into the lake.
You wanna teach her to shoot you put a god-damn automatic weapon in her little hands and turn her loose.
And when it comes to the birds and the bees, well...
Maybe those parents should have those kids taken away for a while...
It seems they have gone so overboard on their theory that everyone should have access to a gun to...
ReplyDeleteEveryone should have access to a gun, including children who can't physically handle it.
She's nine and she murdered a man on her family vacation.
Thanks for the memories?
You should refresh yourself on the definition of murder.
DeleteCorrect. "Homicide" would be more accurate than "murder".
DeleteKilled, then.
DeleteWhy the hair splitting?
jaw
ReplyDeletedropped
OK, so the father "handled the gun" (ie: shot it as a fully automatic weapon) BEFORE his daughter did and didn't have a clue that that little slip of a girl might have a problem with the recoil? Fuck him. Fuck him all the way to prison and begging for the right to visit his children because he is a dumbass who should have known better than to burden his daughter with this.
ReplyDeleteAgree 110 percent
DeleteCoincidence? Or is it because the parents lawyered up? Bullpoop.
ReplyDeleteThis topic came up over Labor Day weekend. My BIL is a police officer, and he showed us a non functioning uzi along with other non functioning assault weapons. They're used to show officers what they may come across while working. The uzi, because of it's size, is by far the "cutest" and I would imagine it seeming "less lethal" in comparison by the parents, and just knowing the father handled an uzi before this ordeal happened makes my blood run cold.
ReplyDeleteThe whole business model is just wrong, there's no way a child this age needs to "learn" to shoot a submachine gun. Do they license the kids to shoot? If not, there aught to be a law.
I'm laughing too hard. Everybody got what they wanted.
ReplyDelete