Shooting Instructor Dies After 9-year-old girl fired an uzi at him.

[jbett98]

There's not much to hang onto when handling an Uzi, especially when it's running full auto.
When someone shoots my mac 11/9 in FA, it has the suppressor screwed on it.
Makes all the difference in the world controlling the muzzle climb.

 

[MarkAd]

The girl and her parents were negligent. The instructor was careless. But the girl had the weapon and she is responsible.
The parents should be charged with reckless endangerment for letting her fire a FA weapon.

My heart is torn for the agony the girl and her family are going through as well as the pain the instructors family and friends are suffering.

Thank God I am not the county prosecutor that has to decide what legal actions are correct.

 

[clearconscience]

Her left arm looks like it's over the gun, and if that gun is moving up how did it not hit her. That instructor should have been on the other side slightly behind her so he could better control the firearm.

So so sad. That little girl will be ruined for life. And so sad that the instructor had to pass like that, and trying to bring the love of firearms to others

 

[clearconscience]

I don't see how you can hold a 9 year accountable in any way shape or form even knowing the rules, she is far too small to handle a firearm like that. That is the fault of the range, instructor.
A grown man has trouble handling a firearm in FA.

 

[IronMonster]

Agreed. There is no doubt she has some blame, however I cant see how she could be accountable or responsible. (you cant hold a 9 year old to adult expectations) I cant see how the parents are at fault either. Its an accident, its real easy to throw around accusations about how irresponsible or stupid actions are after the fact but I am assuming thousands of similar shoots have been carried out in the past with youngsters without incident . When you are handling deadly weapons it takes fractions of a second to make a fatal misjudgment. There are lots of folks on this forum who have had negligent discharges even if they wont admit it. I come from a family of shooters and have three younger brothers, Two of them have been shot in a ND situation. It happens, sadly this time it cost someone his life.

 

[IronMonster]

There's not much to hang onto when handling an Uzi, especially when it's running full auto.
When someone shoots my mac 11/9 in FA, it has the suppressor screwed on it.
Makes all the difference in the world controlling the muzzle climb.

Its not even an carbine, Its a Micro. The grip is fat, wide and hard to hold on to for a full grown person. It seems like a very poor choice for a 9 year old girl.

 

[MarkAd]

You are confusing Monstermetal. How can you assign blame and say that person is not responsible? This was not a ND so you comparison is flawed.
There is blame on the girl, her parents, the instructor and the business. Again I am glad i don't have to make the legal decisions.

 

[MarkAd]

I truly pray this is burned into our minds and helps us all to never make an inappropriate firearm decision that is forever life changing.

 

[IronMonster]

You are confusing Monstermetal. How can you assign blame and say that person is not responsible? This was not a ND so you comparison is flawed.
There is blame on the girl, her parents, the instructor and the business. Again I am glad i don't have to make the legal decisions.

Im not assigning blame, just saying she is not without fault. She lost control, she played a part. She is also 9 years old and suppose to be in a professionals care in a controlled environment thus to hold her accountable for her actions is absurd.

And I am not comparing her accident to a NG, Im just saying accidents, like negligent discharges, happen. Sometimes they happen to highly trained and skilled people.

 

[james83]

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6121915

remember this incident from 2008?
8 year old boy shoots himself in head while firing a micro-uzi in full auto.
Im all for teaching children about the correct handling of firearms but letting smaller children fire fully-automatic weapons seems like a bad idea to me, sure child soldiers in the congo have automatic ak's and yeah they usually end up shooting themselves and everything else around them except what they are trying to hit.
I have never fired a micro-uzi but if it is anything like a Mac-10 on full auto the muzzle climb is quite drastic when not using anykind of stock

 

[erudne]

in life and under the law 8 YO's cannot be held responsible for their actions due to the fact that their mental development will not be complete for a decade or more. The parents, and especially the "Professional" were to blame and handed another victory to the Deadites

 

[Outrider]

*There are ads before and after the video.*

<broken link removed>

At the end of the video clip, one can see the gun starting to rise and drifting out of her support hand. It got away from her.

As has been said, full auto raises the difficulty level. While I can understand people wanting try full auto for fun, some guns are not for newbies. Small subguns on full auto are challenging for adults. They're too much for small kids.

It's a shame. This memory will haunt her. She'll have to make her own peace with it and unfortunately that may take many, many years, if it ever happens.

 

[Doc In UPlace]

I come from a family of shooters and have three younger brothers, Two of them have been shot in ND situations.

Now, what part of King County should we avoid by at least a mile?

 

[clearconscience]

I don't mean this to sound bad but looks like a case a whiskey throttle. You can tell the girl is absolutely ignorant to firearms, and how can you not be at 9YO.
This guy was in a bad position to be able to react or control that firearm when the inevitable happened.

A few rounds and a fraction of a second was all it took. Hell he didn't have time to react.

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

Darwinism

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

I blame the parents and instructor. This is what happens when people live in liberal wanna be gun free states like NJ. Probably overzealous when they get a little breath of freedom and liberty.
Either way parents shouldn't have let their little girl just got at it with FA firearms and the instructor should have had more brains and control of the situation. Accidents are accidents, and stupidity is stupidity.

Wow...this has to be the biggest pile of self-delusion and partisan bull crap I have ever seen. What a weak attempt to blame liberals for this guys stupidity.

 

[mkwerx]

The adults in this situation all failed - the parents failed in their judgement to let such a young child handle a weapon that many adults have problems controlling - as did the instructor. He also put himself in a bad place, physically - strike two. Seems to me the adults lack of ability to say "No, that's a bad idea" got someone killed.

Small children can be taught to shoot, and enjoy shooting, but they should employ proper firearms for their size, age, and ability. In my first marriage, I taught my then five year old step daughter basic firearm safety and how to use a bolt action single shot .22. That was the only gun she was allowed to shoot. She was small, slim and had small hands. She did well with that rifle, and would've been on her way to trying semi-autos had her mom and I stayed together. I at least was able to instill in her that she was not to touch a firearm without myself or her mother present, and if she found a gun or a friend of hers showed her a gun, to go get the nearest adult and leave the gun alone. Simple, common sense stuff. No way in hell would I have handed her any centerfire firearm. She was almost 9 when her mom and I split - and no way even then would I have handed her anything other than a .22.

My son (who is 3) will have a .22 single shot when he is old enough, and will be taught the same way. Maybe a semi-auto .22 by the time he's 7 or 8 if he starts early like my step daughter did. Maybe later if he isn't ready for it. No way in hell will he be touching anything else until he's at least 10 or 12 and physically and mentally capable of using a larger firearm, if even then. I want my son to develop the same passion and respect for firearms and what they can and cannot do that I have - and I want my son to be safe, and never carry the burden of having accidentally or negligently killing someone else, or himself.

While I don't believe the government should enact any new laws - I seriously don't think that ranges ought to be allowing young children access to anything other than rimfires and air rifles even if mom & dad think it's a good idea - sometimes we DO have to protect stupid people from themselves, because we're also protecting ourselves from their stupidity.

The word tragedy gets over-used these days, but this incident is an honest tragedy because of what this young child will be going through, and the loss of life by such preventable means. As a community we (gun enthusiasts, shooters, and gun owners) should self police and self regulate our behavior so the nanny staters and the anti gun crowd have less standing to paint us all as irresponsible fools and trigger happy zealots and thus pass more restrictions for "us."

Some things should be reserved for adults. I get that the parents want to share fun things with their children - but lack of forethought often leads to bad ends for too many children - be it from them operating vehicles (like ATVs) or shooting firearms too large for them, or letting them roam free unsupervised, to letting a non-swimming toddler loose on a lake shore. As a parent your duty is to protect your young child from danger - not place them unnecessarily in it. Saying "No" to an activity or putting limits in place is not being mean, it's being a responsible parent.

 

[Swedish K]

I can tell you that a full sized FA uzi is quite difficult to fire one handed - try a pair of them at the same time. Essentially in that case once you pull the triggers its go full tilt till you run the mags dry. Essentially your brain is so focused on keeping the guns as controlled as possible that you can't let go of the triggers for fear of completely loosing control.

That is with full sized uzis and a full sized experienced shooter. Considering the torque generated and resulting muzzle rise, translate that into a much smaller package that has a higher rate of fire. The less controllable mini and micro uzis in the hands of an inexperienced 9 year old (even using two hands) is a recipe for disaster.

In general I'm surprised that the range allowed a child to fire anything full auto that isn't hard mounted to prevent the thing getting away from them.

 

[clearconscience]

Wow...this has to be the biggest pile of self-delusion and partisan bull crap I have ever seen. What a weak attempt to blame liberals for this guys stupidity.

Slightly joking there, and was in no way blaming the liberals even though they will probably jump on this.
One of the scariest things I've done is go shooting with people that are completely ignorant to firearms and have never been around them.
Been out at times with friends of a friend deal, and the portland crowd that came thought it was cool like being in a western. One guy twirled the pistol he just shot.
After about 10 mins of shooting i stood behind my vehicle for the rest of the day.

 

[IronMonster]

Now, what part of King County should we avoid by at least a mile?

Yeah, yeah I knew I had that coming. One was totally innocent, the other at fault. It was actually the same bullet that shot them both. The older brother somehow discharged a 9 MM handgun, shot himself in the left hand and the younger brother through the upper leg. I wasn't there and the older of the two has never really been able to explain what happened. Fortunately they both fully recovered. It comes down to negligence however you look at it. And as I said before its real easy to look in from the outside and just say "never happen to me" But neither you or I are a perfect human being. We get tired, complacent or just do something we know better than to do. It should never happen, but it does. And to make you feel a little better the brother who was at fault lives in Southern Idaho so you should be good.