Girl, 9, Accidentally Kills Instructor While Firing an Uzi
Aug 27, 2014, 12:59 AM ET
A 9-year-old girl being taught how to use an Uzi sub-machine gun lost
control of the powerful weapon and accidentally killed her instructor,
authorities said.
The shooting happened at 10 a.m. Monday at Bullets and Burgers, a gun
range within the Arizona Last Stop tourist recreational complex
southeast of Las Vegas.
According to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, the instructor –-
identified as Charles Vacca, 39 –- was standing next to the girl,
teaching her how to use the Uzi. The girl's parents, who are from New
Jersey, stood nearby, capturing video of the experience.
Sam Scarmardo, a former Lake Havasu City Council member who operates the
shooting range, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the girl's
parents signed waivers saying they understood the rules of the range and
were standing nearby, video-recording their daughter, when the accident
happened.
"I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Charlie was killed in the incident," Scarmardo said.
The girl, in a gray T-shirt, pink shorts and her hair in a braid, can be
seen in the video being advised to adjust her feet. "All right, go
ahead and give me one shot," Vacca is heard telling her.
The instructor praises the girl for the shot and then tells her, "All right full auto."
As the girl pulled the trigger, and the recoil caused her to lose
control of the gun, with Vacca accidentally shot in the head, the Mohave
County Sheriff's Office said. Vacca was flown to the University Medical
Center, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Sam Scarmardo, the gun range operator, was distraught about Vacca's death.
"It's like losing a brother," Scarmardo said. "These aren't employees or
associates of ours, these are family. We're all family."
Many gun ranges allow children who are 8 years and older –- with parental supervision –- to shoot firearms, Scarmardo said.
"We instruct kids as young as 5 on .22 rifles, and they don't get to
handle high firearms, but they're under the supervision of their parents
and of our professional range masters," Scarmardo said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
end quote from:
Let me tell you of an incident that happened in 1956
(actually a couple of them). In 1956 I was 8 years old and my
grandmother gave me my father's .22 pump 17 shot Remington rifle because
he had started using it when he was 6 and his brother was given a .22
pistol at age 4 because that is how country folk did things in the 1920s
in Oregon and Washington and other places too. My Grandad was an
Electrical Contractor so all the boys at least (there were 2 girls too)
were expected to go hunt for food and split wood after school very
often.
So, at 8 giving me the .22 rifle was sort of
late according to the values they had of being born in the 1880s of my
Grandad and Grandmother.
The idea was I guess then that "The sooner you put the fear of God into a child the sooner that child becomes responsible". So, by this standard if a child from 4 to 8 years of age couldn't be responsible for keeping everyone safe with a gun then they were seen as sort of dysfunctional, retarded, and would discriminated against as being "Less than" the rest of their lives.
So, back in the day (before about 1970) if you couldn't use a weapon effectively and have the courage to defend your family with it you were not respected as a young man. This was the way things were when I grew up in the 1950s even though it was slowly changing starting with the Viet Nam War.
Basically, children today would be seen as sort of like "pets" not to be taken seriously ever if they couldn't handle a weapon to defend their families by about age 9 in an emergency.
Though I think people are sincere in changing all these things "What happens when ISIS people start cutting off people's heads here in the U.S.?
We are going to need to train children to defend their families in emergencies once again I believe.
Those that don't know how to defend themselves simply put "will be dead". This is what I think.
This is one of the stories of what happened after I was given my .22 rifle. We went to Idaho where my grandfather had an 1800 acre mining claim. He stayed there and did mining work after he retired up until his death in a van accident in fall of 1970.
So, this was about 1956 when I was 8 and my cousin was 13. We had been given for the day each an automatic pistol to strap on our hips. They were loaded. Mine was a woodsman .22 automatic loader with a clip of about 10 shots in the handle. My cousin had strapped on a German Lugar which I believe is a 9mm weapon like a Gloch. I think it was also around a 10 shot automatic pistol.
It was raining that day as we drove to a safe place to shoot on my grandfather's mining claim that he lived on from spring through fall each year. He spent the other 6 months with my grandmother at his 2 1/2 acres of apple and cherry trees and bosenberries and raspberries at their home there in Lake Forest Park, Washington near Seattle.
Also, we brought along a 30 odd 6 rifle from World War I which is capable of shooting through an engine block of a truck or car or if men are in a line going through about 6 to 10 of them before stopping. It was designed for maximum carnage for war. Now, war weapons like this emphasize killing shots so they use dum dums which take out 10 to 12 inches of flesh which causes the recipient of the bullet to bleed to death within minutes. They use hollow point bullets now.
Anyway, the first thing that happened was that I was 8 years old with a loaded weapon on my hip. I had seen way to many cowboy movies as had every other boy my age and had had a Davy Crockett outfit with a coonskin cap (a real one) and fake leather outfit to simulate deerskin with arm fringe and leg fringe. I had already done all that by age 6. So, here I am with a fully loaded weapon riding on the front of a World War II Army Mash Vehicle which is an old Dodge power wagon with about 2 to 3 feet of ground clearance. (the ground clearance likely save my life).
The next thing I know from riding on the right front fender was grandpa hit a 10 inch diameter rock in the rain on the dirt road. This stopped the mash vehicle suddenly and I fell forwards under the truck and grandpa drove over me, (.22 pistol in a leather scabbord and all). I wasn't hurt except for a black and blue space on my knee where the tire had driven over my leg. But, because it was raining slightly it just pushed me down into the mud and didn't break my leg. I tried to tell my mother I was okay because she was screaming by this point and thought I was dead but the wind had been knocked out of me. Then at 8 they made me not ride on the front fender like a man they put me on my mother's lap in the front which I was really upset about even though I was covered with mud from falling under the truck.
We drove forward to the shooting site where I started shooting at targets in a big dead tree. Then my cousin shot the German Lugar so I tried it too. Big mistake at age 8. I didn't compensate for the kick and took the 9 mm kick straight into my forehead which gave me a headache and caused my forehead to bleed some. But, I wasn't going to give up that easily. (Because I was man in my own mind) I asked also to shoot the 30 odd 6. Back then, if a young man wanted to be a man, men usually let him to see if he really was a man. So, I shot the 30 odd 6 at age 8 but I wasn't quite physically big enough to pull this off. I also didn't expect the kick of the 30 odd 6 to make my shoulder black and blue for a month as I landed on my backside from the heavy kick of a 30 odd 6. If you have seen the size of a 30 odd 6 bullet you would know why I was on my butt from the kick of that at age 8. Also, one expected to be laughed at by men if you fell on your butt. This was no exception of the way things were then either.
So, now I have blood running down my forehead AND I have the most Awful sore shoulder and butt from being knocked down by a 30 odd 6 plus I'm limping because I just got run over by my grandfather.
So, how did I feel? I had a headache, my head was bleeding, my shoulder felt like it might never be used again on the right side, I was limping from being run over on my right leg by the Mash Vehicle. But, I felt like a man. I had survived everything life had dished out that day and I felt like a man. I could take whatever life dished out. I was a man at age 8.
Another incident that happened in Red Rock Canyon in California when my cousins and I were hunting jackrabbits with .22 rifles. I really wasn't interested much in hitting jackrabbits then because I didn't like to see them die because I was 10. I mostly like the sport of trying to shoot them as they tried to run away like all other boys my age then in the 1950s.
Anyway, I got separated from my two cousins who were 5 years older than I and I found them about 1 mile in front of me. I could see where they were because the shots were hitting the ground near me. I couldn't really see the jackrabbit they were shooting at. I was about 9 years old then. I laid down on the ground so I would have less chance of getting shot by a stray bullet. a .22 long rifle bullet can shoot forward a mile if it is shot level. If you angle it up to 20 degrees or more it will shoot even further than that. So, remember this the next time you are shooting a .22 .
Also, boys were trained like this because they all expected then to be drafted into the army or join the Navy, marines or Air Force or coast guard and we all expected to die in a nuclear war then when the world blew up. We all thought this was inevitable then. We all expected everyone on earth to die within about 10 to 20 years then in a nuclear holocaust. It was very surprising for all of my generation when we didn't.
This is something like the woodsman .22 I used at 8 looked like. It had white handles but wasn't this ornate and more simple.
Here is what the 9mm german lugar looked like in 1956
This is what a 30 odd 6 rifle from World War I looks like:
However, I'm not sure this is a bolt action. This looks like it might be a world war II one which was set up like an automatic where you just squeeze the trigger each time to shoot instead of the bolt action kind of World War I.
According to Google Images these are two images of likely different kinds of Uzis
The problem is it is such a small weapon that for a child it is sort of like what happened in True lies (the movie) with Jamie Lee Curtis where it gets loose and bounces down the stairs. You really have to hang on to them because unless you are strong enough they are going to get loose like in that movie. Even with an arm or shoulder brace they can still get loose and keep firing. So, someone strong that won't let go no matter what should be firing one of these. I cannot imagine giving ANY 9 year old an UZI to fire (even with supervision). The problem would be exactly what happened to the instructor. Death.
Although, I was thinking in True Lies it might have been a Tech 9
which looks like this:
which is an even smaller weapon than an Uzi and hard to hold onto too unless you have strong wrists and arms and fingers.
I heard a weapons expert on CNN talk about an UZi and they said even having a women or man who isn't strong enough to hold onto it while firing it is a danger. You really have to have a strong will and a strong hand and arm to fight the kick in a 3 burst or beyond. This is a machine pistol or hand machine gun which has quite a kick so when you have a 3 or more burst of bullets that is going to move the muzzle a whole lot unless you are ready for the kicks each time a bullet goes out the muzzle.
No comments:
Post a Comment