Tragic
An 8 year old was killed at a machine gun shoot. A few weeks back, someone was injured at the Knob Creek Machine Gun shoot by shrapnel. Now, I’m as down with machine guns as any gun nut should be but the folks that run these shoots apparently need to be a bit more mindful of safety.
A bit back, I took my seven year old nephews and six year old niece shooting for the first time. We shot cans in the backyard with a pellet gun. Not a micro-uzi. A small child can’t handle the muzzle rise on something like that. I also wouldn’t have taken a handgun or a semi-auto rifle for the same reason. Also, the first time I fired a machine gun, I was about 15 years old (thanks, dad!). I’d already fired many rounds through weapons that weren’t machine guns. And the first magazine I fired through that MP5 was loaded with blanks. I’ve since fired a few more. I still can’t, at 175 pounds and a proper grip, do a magazine dump with an MP5 and maintain muzzle control. To think a child could have has proven fatal. And that’s a tragedy. And, yes, it’s easy to Monday morning quarterback this incident.
Others:
When stuff like this happens, politicos are quick to draft dumb laws.
Hard to imagine the pain his father must be suffering. But what was he thinking?
October 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I *like* recoil, and I don’t think I would shoot a fully-loaded micro Uzi without a warm-up (one round, three rounds, five rounds…). To put such a compact and fast-rising auto in the hands of a little kid is lunacy.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I enjoyed shooting Jim’s FNC, but trying to hold a cheekweld or a “weld” of any sort – the shock-pulse vibration just made my glasses bounce up and down at a rate that effectively quadrupled my vision and negated muzzle control.
Maybe that’s why the AK-crackers in Africa hold them way up in the air over their heads and fire?
October 28th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
These are machines. They require explicit conscious control consequential to understanding exactly what they do and how they do it.
This is why no sensible person would let an eight year-old just jump in the car and drive around, or pose him for a photograph with a table-saw.
Jesus. The only one I feel sorry for is the kid, who needed a responsible parent on the scene.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
We give our kids bicycles, scooters, skateboards and skis, knowing full well they’re going to be injured on them. We teach them to drive, knowing full well they’re going to end up in an accident at some point.
Still, Unc is right– the kid should not have been handed an Uzi without first learning more about controlling recoil (actually this would be more accurately described as “thrust”) from a little subgun.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I was there at the MG shoot. I thought the event was run well. There were plenty of youth shooting MGs of all sorts that did not get hurt that day or the day before. Would I have let my 9 year old son shoot a micro-Uzi prior to this? I don’t know. Maybe. But this tragic ending would not have been a scenario that crossed my mind in considering whether I’d let him or not. I am not perfect and cannot divine all future events.
I know now, at the cost of this young boy’s life AND WITH HINDSIGHT, that a micro-Uzi is probably not a good choice for a novice of any age. But, I’ll honestly say that I couldn’t have foreseen this ending if it didn’t actually happen. I am not ignorant or stupid or lacking in experience with a myriad of rifles and handguns… just would not have thought this ending was a forgone conclusion. Risky, yes. For certain that death/injury would ensue, no.
So call the dad ignorant or say he should have known better or jump to whatever conclusion that you are so certain about. The bottom line is that everyone that wasn’t there is armchair quarterbacking. Even with the greatest preparations and expert oversight, accidents can and do still happen. There is no 100% guarantee of safety in anything in life. Statistically, the child probably had a higher risk of dying in a car accident on the way to the MG shoot. Sometimes life betrays statistics and that’s called tragedy.
We should hold the family in our thoughts and prayers instead of contempt. There is a lesson in this for all; that life as we think we know it can be changed in a fraction of a second.
Just my opinion anyway.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
i can’t imagine what the family is going through. And, yes, quite a bit of second guessing going on.