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How on earth could this have happened and why was this little girl allowed anywhere near a gun?
http://news.yahoo.com/girl-nine-kills-arizona-shooting-instr...
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Comments
An unfortunate consequence ...
of parenting, poor instructorship, and the US constitution. I was taught to shoot a 22 revolver when I was 8 or 9, but my Dad closely supervised me and the gun while I shot it. Over the 1st half of the training was gun safety, and he only let me have the gun when I was about to shoot it. Rule one, there are no unloaded guns.
In the USA you need to teach kids about guns, they are very common here.
My heart goes out to the girl, this is a trauma she is going to carry for life.
Gun Crazy!
Greetings
In my opinion, what sane parent would let a young child use a Uzi submachine gun.
Brian
This makes me sick that this was allowed to happen.
I agree.
As someone who owns several firearms, I'm sickened by the extreme lack of safety.
The one time as a child I fired a non BB firearm, It was the county sheriff who helped me. He went to same church as my family did we were at a weekend camp-out. He had a personal firearm, a .357 revolver. He stood behind me and as I held the pistol, he held it with my covering my hands with his but where I could pull the trigger. This allowed him to control the recoil and me to experience a non hair trigger pull and the sound.
This should never have happened. Anyone who knows how a firearm kicks and moves with force should know better than to give a nine year old girl a weapon this powerful.
Her stance is all wrong. She's not bracing the firearm on herself by using the built in stock. All the force of the firearm is now being held in check by her 9yr old child arms and no other part of her body. If she had the proper stance and held the firearm properly, this still could have happened but was less likely.
This was the wrong weapon to teach the girl about firearms. A number of other fire arms should have been used instead of a 9mm uzi to teach about firearms and safety. Examples are A .50 black powder long gun using on a bench rest, .22LR scout style rifle, or even a BB/Airsoft/paintball gun would have been a better starter firearm.
People don't realize how great a tool Paintball, Airsoft, or a BB gun is for teaching firearm safety.
Firearms Safety -- 10 Rules of Safe Gun Handling
Shooting Positions -- Just as important as all the rules when operating a firearm. Good positioning helps keep more control over a firearm than bad positioning.
And last of all -- Take care of your firearms if you own one. If they are damaged, get it fixed and if you're not getting it fixed, don't use it. Firearms are like a car in that if it's not maintained it will destroy itself and if you're using it when it does, you and possibly others could be hurt. For an idea of poor maintenance, Google FN FAL .308 headspace failure. Clean your firearms after every use.
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There's nothing wrong with a
There's nothing wrong with a 7-10 year old being taught how to use a gun. That's actually a GOOD thing, because then they'll know what it is - and isn't. The problem is that the instructor here reaped what he sowed.
You don't start someone small off with an automatic weapon. Heck, you don't even start off with a semi-automatic weapon. My nieces will (soon) be taught by me, but using a .22 bolt action rifle in single shot mode. After that, we'll 'graduate' to a .22 handgun. (Both are large enough to shoot a .38 without a problem, however)
For that matter, you shouldn't start ANY new user off with an automatic weapon. They're too unpredictable. Even an AK or M16 in burst.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I remember the first time I
I remember the first time I shot a .308 which was with my brand new bolt action Remington 770. And I thought I knew what that would feel like because I'd shot .50 cal black powder and 5.56 before.
I was wrong.
I scope bit myself on the first shot and gave myself a concussion, and caused sinus swelling and bleeding. Needless to say, I changed my sitting stance to one more appropriate for that large a round and haven't had a problem since.
When I built my FN FAL, I made sure it had as little recoil as I could make it. I placed a stanag scope mount on it and was like, nope, I don't want to be scope bit by it at all. Needless to say it worked. I haven't scope bit myself yet, although one of my cousins did the first time he shot it.
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> How on earth could this
> How on earth could this have happened
I have to agree with Bibliophage: the "instructor" - in effect - committed suicide. I cannot believe that a "certified" instructor put a weapon into a child's hands and then stepped away. I would never do that - even with an adult - if they were new to the firearm. I remember the first time I got to fire a full-auto (happened to also be an Uzi). The owner of it stood right behind me, with his hands inches away from my own. "Try to keep the first bursts to five or less shots," he warned. I managed to get my finger off the trigger right at five. Two hits on the cardboard (30x18"), the others went somewhere above the target into the mountain behind. He relaxed a little after I showed I could control the Uzi in subsequent bursts, but he never moved from behind me.
> and why was this little girl allowed anywhere near a gun?
Um, why not?
The key factor here is supervision. Children in the range of 8-10 are at an ideal age to impress with good gun-handling skills and ethics. Unlike a teen-aged person, they'll actually listen to instruction (and internalize it) about important things, such as muzzle control, finger OUTSIDE the trigger guard, and knowing what's behind your target. I learned to shoot at age 7 with my father's .22LR; started hunting small game at age 10. Our children were, in turn, taught gun safety from about age 4 and had their first trip to the range at about 8. And none of us have ever killed anyone. God willing, we'll never need to.
Be well,
Deni