Nine year old accidentally kills gun instructor with Uzi

[sologdin]

exactly. instructor is deceased due to own fault, whereas juvenile may be in need of psychiatric treatment. parents should likely make demand upon range/instructor's employer?

[KiDisaster]

I believe the point of teaching kids how to safely handle and maintain guns is so that they don't see guns as toys. That's how it was in my family anyway. Most of my uncles and cousins are avid hunters, so I was taught gun safety starting at around 10 years old. That said, I didn't fire anything more powerful than a .410 shotgun (which has very little recoil) until I was 14 or 15, and only ever with my dad or one of my uncles making sure I wasn't doing anything stupid. Safety and respect for the weapon (and the fact that it is a weapon, not a toy) were emphasized above anything else.

I don't hunt (I can't stand it personally) and I do not own a gun, nor do I want to. If anything, learning how to properly handle a gun and seeing firsthand what they can do to a living thing is the primary reason I have no interest in them. If I'd never been properly educated about weapons I might have been one of those idiots who buys a gun on his 21st birthday without any real understanding of it and ended up hurting someone.

But I can only speak for myself and my own experience, and in any case there is no reason whatsoever to give a child an automatic weapon. That is not teaching them gun safety or responsibility, it's treating guns as toys which is entirely the opposite of what you need to be showing kids.

ETA: I suppose I should also add, my family are not American I was not raised in America. The gun culture where I am from is very different, so maybe the way kids are taught about guns in the States is completely different from the way I was taught.

[Jslay427]

Bad Parents are not strictly limited to the US, but with an admittedly gun centered culture in some parts of the US I'm not suprised.

[KiDisaster]

Double post.

[Fragile Bird]

(technically a submachine gun, no?)

are there cases in canada upholding firearms use as child abuse or delinquency &c.?

Oh no, but mainly because it would be almost impossible for this to happen in Canada. I would need to look at the the rules (not being a gun owner, I can't list the prohibited weapons by heart) but I think they are banned in Canada.

As for minors:

Minor’s Licence

A minor’s licence permits the borrowing of non-restricted firearms (ordinary rifles and shotguns) for the following activities:

• target practice
• organized shooting competitions
• hunting
• being instructed in the use of firearms

A minor's licence also permits the acquisition of ammunition, unless there is an age restriction under provincial or territorial law.

As a general rule, the following requirements must be met:

• The applicant must be at least 12 years old. If they are younger than 12, they may obtain a minor's licence only if they are Canadian residents and their Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) determines they need to hunt or trap to sustain themselves or their family.
• As per section 7 of the Firearms Act, individuals under 18 must complete theCanadian Firearms Safety Course and pass the test in order to get a licence. They are not eligible to challenge and attempt to pass the test without taking the course.
• Individuals younger than 18 years of age are not eligible to hold a licence authorizing them to possess prohibited or restricted firearms.

Jesus. My older daughter is turning nine in January next year. I would never even think about taking her to a shooting range, much less about handing her any kind of weapon. What the hell is the purpose of that with a kid that age? What's wrong with these people? Total and utter madness.

My dad, having been raised as a farmer, entered the Polish army just before the war, was captured by the Russians, marched across to Siberia, then sent off to Persia to fight under the British, fought across North Africa and up Italy. Both my parents seriously thought there would be a WW III, and thought it ok to buy a BB gun for my brothers to shoot when they were young, maybe 10 years old? One brother didn't care for guns, the other would go hunting with my dad and went through all the training courses. I think I was allowed to shoot the BB gun once. When I was a teen I became a Sea Ranger, since my brothers had become Sea Cadets, and I learned to shoot a 22 on the firing range. I was not interested in guns at all, and never did more than that.

The thing that blows my mind is that it was the instructer who put the then fully automatic weapon in her hands. What the hell could he have been thinking?

And 39 years old, well past the age of gross stupidity, you would think. I can imagine what his last thoughts were, if he was still able to think after being shot in the head, 'I should have held the gun with her'.

[TerraPrime]

it's treating guns as toys which is entirely the opposite of what you need to be showing kids.

There's nothing wrong with seeing guns as toys. Plenty of people practice target shooting or skeet shooting for fun.

"Kids" are taught how to drive large tractors and operate farm machines too, and they pose their own sort of danger. Guns are just different machines.

[KiDisaster]

There's nothing wrong with seeing guns as toys. Plenty of people practice target shooting or skeet shooting for fun.

"Kids" are taught how to drive large tractors and operate farm machines too, and they pose their own sort of danger. Guns are just different machines.

I'm not saying guns can't be a means of recreation. Hunting is, sport shooting is, but I still don't see the gun as a "toy" in either of those instances.

You can have fun with a car too if you drive it fast round a track, but I would never see a car as a toy. You've got to respect it for the capable-of-mass-destruction thing that it is and operate it accordingly.

But I guess I'm arguing semantics more than anything else. :dunno:

[Glaurung]

I'm generally pro gun rights and I think this is crazy. Why would anybody think it's a good idea to let their kid shoot an automatic weapon? Even some of the more gun crazy people I know think that this is crazy.

[awesome possum]

America, FUCK YEAH! Letting children shoot uzis because of motherfucking freedom!

[Lord Flashheart]

In 2008 an 8yr old boy shot himself and died with an Uzi while his father videotaped. maybe the parents and instructor figured since this girl was 9 she was more than ready.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jurors-uzi-trial-brace-graphic-replay/story?id=12556398

[S John]

I don't see anything wrong with bringing the kid to the range or even letting her squeeze off a few rounds... but an Uzi on full auto was clearly a poor decision.

[Galactus]

I think it's *entirely* crazy to teach a 9 year old the basics of shooting, gun safety etc. if properly supervised.

Letting a child handle an SMG is not part of that.

[TerraPrime]

Stuff like this is just the natural conclusion of this country's attitude about firearms. Yeah, it's so very tragic. But so what, really. People die from ill-made decisions all the time. The fact that this particular death involves a bad decision about gun safety isn't really an indictment against gun ownership or gun use. Give enough gun access to enough people, and people are going to die from it. One follows the other. We don't go navel-gazing about the rate of car ownership in the U.S. when we see tragic car accidents involving stupid stunts or poor decisions, after all. I've learned to take these deaths in stride and I am a lot less bothered by these things now. People are going to die from guns. News at 10.

[Disturber of Peace]

Clearly the gun instructors do not have appropriate training to handle young children.

So should they have a paid trip and training in Central Arfica or should warlods be imported to teach?

[awesome possum]

I remember my dad taking me to turkey shoots at the American Legion when I was a kid. We didn't actually hunt turkeys but instead about 10 people lined up with rifles or shotguns and took a shot at a target. Closest to the center won a turkey or other prizes.

I first got to shoot when I was 8 or 9 but not before my father, the Legion's Master at Arms and President all sat me and the other new shooters down and gave us a stern talking to about the responsibility that comes with holding a gun, etc. One of the kids, who was a year older than me, let that go in one ear and out the other, because the first thing he did with his loaded rifle was start waving it around at people. I went to three more turkey shoots before my dad died, and that kid was still not allowed near the range or a rifle even then.

Seems like what used to be common sense is now thrown in the garbage if it looks like its going to infringe on one's perceived freedumb.

[Chiki]

Time to buy guns back from everyone.

[Balefont]

The thing that blows my mind is that it was the instructer who put the then fully automatic weapon in her hands. What the hell could he have been thinking?

Well, let's just say justice has been served.

[cdawnb]

Well, let's just say justice has been served.

No it hasn't. That little girl has to live with this for the rest of her life because of a few moron adults who made very poor decisions on her behalf.

Where is the justice in that? There isn't any. There never can be.

[Balefont]

No it hasn't. That little girl has to live with this for the rest of her life because of a few moron adults who made very poor decisions on her behalf.

Where is the justice in that? There isn't any. There never can be.

Well, they can't get anything from a corpse, so...

[sologdin]

sue the grrrrrn range.