Gun instructor shot dead by 9-year-old with Uzi

boing
#8

It’s not a wildly high probability accident; but the fact that handing an inexperienced(and likely not particularly strong) operator a submachine gun is going to involve some muzzle climb should not be a surprise to anyone remotely qualified to be an instructor. It’s a bit hard to say for sure from the video; but it looks like she was using one of the versions without a stock for support at the shoulder, which is going to be even harder to control.

I don’t imagine that somebody is in the wrong place most of the time; but substantial deviation is totally predictable under the circumstances.

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#9

I probably should have put a sarcasm mark in there - I accept that the safety record up to that point was good, but the idea that you can put an automatic weapon in a nine year old child’s hands is insane. The fact that this didn’t even break the rules of the shooting range is disturbing. I’m not against guns in principle, but they aren’t toys and letting kids use uzis is not a good way to reinforce that message. By all means teach them to use a lower powered weapon accurately and with respect.

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#10

Fair enough. I don’t particularly mind that they are mostly toys in this context, I’m just somewhat baffled by the thought process on the part of someone allegedly qualified to teach others.

With a suitably sturdy mount they could have put on ‘M-2 Monday!’ and let the kid blow through a few belts without incident, dangerous toys can be fun; but this just seems like such a magnificently poor match between the demands of the hardware and the capabilities of the operator.

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#11

The amount of burning stupid all the way down the decision tree is just staggering.

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#12

Sorted

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#13

There’s this one too.

#14

You reap what you sow.

What did you expect? C’mon there is simply no good reason for a 9 year old to be handling an Uzi.

Perhaps there is a reasonable argument to made for teaching your child to use a hunting rifle, but an Uzi?

Bad decision on the part of the girl’s parents, the shooting range, and the instructor. Plenty of opportunities to object to a clearly bad idea.

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#15

Sow. The idiom refers to planting crops, not rendering garments.

/pedant

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#16

Oh, I dunno… I’d say if you put a short-barreled automatic weapon in the hands of someone who lacks the necessary experience to control said weapon there’s actually a pretty high probability that something untoward will happen.

You know, like the instructor getting shot in the head.

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#17

Funny.

I’ve never seen the phrase in writing before. In my head inserting a needle into fabric seemed like a reasonable analogy to inserting seed into soil. It never occurred to me I was using the wrong word.

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#18

Well put.

#19

There was no way anyone could have predicted this.

I disagree completely and vehemently. Putting a fully-automatic weapon in the hands of a 9-year-old? And letting her fire it with no additional support? That’s beyond dangerously insane and borderline suicidal. This result is not simply predictable - it’s pretty much guaranteed. There is no physical way the body of a 9-y.o. can safely control that kind of recoil - none. It was a near certainty that the force would knock her off-line and into a dangerous direction, and she would not have had the instinct (or capability) to let off on the trigger when that happened.

Let me put it bluntly: the “instructor” died from his own stupidity and incompetence. He deserved it. He put that girl and everyone else at the range in mortal danger with what he did, and it’s amazingly karmic that only he died as a result. Her parents should be investigated by CPS for doing something so irresponsible as well. the only person in this sad affair worthy of any sympathy is the girl herself - she’ll have to live with the mess that idiot created for her, when absolutely none of it was her fault.

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#20

I’m glad you didn’t take that as an attack or anything. As a back-yard farmer and a constant renderer of garments, it’s a personal peeve to see this particular idiom mangled. And it happens frequently, it would seem you’re very much not alone in having believed ‘sew’ was the acceptable end. So, thanks for not taking offense (and thus the preemptive tag).

Back OT…Seriously, what terrible parent would think putting a fully automatic firearm into the hands of their 9 year old kid would be a good idea?

#21

EXACTLY correct. I’m a very experienced multiple-gun owner and taught my son to shoot when he was younger than this girl, with an age appropriate pellet gun, then .22 lever action. Because of safety, trigger and loading complexity, ANY pistol is a bad idea for early firearm instruction. Allowing any child, but especially a neophyte to fire a machine pistol, like a stock-less Uzi is criminally negligent in my opinion. It’s no different than strapping a kid who’s interested in auto racing into a Ferrari with the seat all the way forward, instead of a go-kart.

Luckily the instructor paid the price instead of the little girl, unlike the 8 year old boy who was killed in an identical accident a couple years ago.

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#22

I guess we’ve got a current front-runner for the 2014 Darwin Awards.

Seriously: an Uzi and a 9-year-old? WTeverlovingF?

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#23

The effect on the girl is just too much for me to have any schadenfreude. It would be fine if it were just the instructor getting what he deserved, but the girl has to live with the guilt of this, even though it was entirely his fault.

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#24

Reap what you sow, and sew what you rip.

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#25

Sew it goes.

To be more on-topic, this is just horrible. From what I remember of my days firing rifles in Air Cadets, I think this is why we had to use a manual version of the SA80 (the L98 - semi-auto would have been okay, but not full auto), and short barrel weapons were right out.

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#26

A freak accident? Spare me.

A weapon specifically designed to slaughter multiple human beings in the shortest possible time kills someone. Gee, who woulda thunk it?

The only one involved I have any sympathy for is the poor little girl. Everyone else? Live by the sword, die by the sword.

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#27

The instructor’s problems are now over. That little girl has a lifetime filled with this ghastly memory.

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