Nick Anderson for August 29, 2014

Do Uzi the gleam in that kid’s eyes?

in other news, 9 year old kills gun instructor after the recoil from a uzi kicks the gun back toward the instructor

On this side of the pond we had a doccie on teevee recently about families who teach their kids about guns and shooting early and consider themselves good parents. And of course they are. The documentary maker, Francine Shaw, notes they are good parents.Of course they also documented the case of a 9 year old boy who went hunting with his .22 and accidentally shot himself when he jumped over something, gun slipped, hit the ground, discharged and fatally shot him. The case of a disabled veteran who bought a too powerful rifle for his 4 year old (yes, 4) for xmas or a birthday, and upon firing it for the first time, the recoil hurt her and therefore making her afraid and unwilling to try other weapons and thereby frustrating the father who believed it was fundamental that she learn to shoot…They followed a 9 year old Texan girl who was competing at gun competitions, the pressure she was under…

“Could Shaw have made this programme anywhere other than the US? “Well, in other countries there are lots of issues with kids and guns – child soldiers, competitive shooting events for children and countries where hunting is a family hobby, but American attitudes to guns are different to anywhere else.”

Shaw’s film doesn’t tackle one especially vexed part of the issue with with children and guns – a sharp acceleration in cases of gun-related violence at American schools and colleges. In June, when a 15-year-old boy armed with a rifle killed a student at a school in Oregon, injured a teacher and then apparently shot himself in a bathroom, it became the 31st firearms attack at an American school in 2014. In the 18 months since 20 school children and six adults were killed in the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, there have been 41 deaths in 62 documented incidents at US schools – and often the shooters are children or young adults.

”Francine Shaw declines to say if she came out of making the programme more sympathetic to the gun lobby or convinced that teaching kids to shoot is, in the US at least, right. But she does point out that there is a huge divide in American society between parents who oppose even buying their children toy guns, and others who are teaching their kids to use the real thing. And Shaw says that she doesn’t despise parents who make the latter choice. On the contrary. “I spent a lot of time with these families seeing how they raise their children and they do love their kids. I liked the families I was with. I didn’t expect to, but I did.”"

I guess the parents of that 9 year old girl in Arizona were good parents, too. But just as when I watched the documentary and heard about this latest incident, I wondered how warped has a society become to view this as part of good parenting.

Powerful? Have you shot one?

Have you shot one? They are not hard to control.

My grandfather taught me to shoot a double action 22 caliber pistol when I was six. You had to cock the pistol, THEN pull the trigger. Simply pulling the trigger did nothing. I was eight when he taught me to shoot a single shot rifle and shotgun, and 12 before I learned to shoot a 20 gauge that fired each time I pulled the trigger for three shots. Other than that, I had single shot bb guns and pellet guns, but because I had gone hunting with my grandfather, as a spectator, I saw what bullets and pellets did to living things. My grandfather prayed over every kill he made and thanked God for the life that would be food for the family. He never kept trophies, he thought they were disrespectful, but passed the skins to people who knew how to tan them.Putting a fully automatic weapon of any kind in the hands of a child invites the results of which this cartoon depicts. I don’t know what the parents’ experience with guns is, but there is a 9 year old girl who will go the rest of her life knowing she killed a person. Many people will tell her it’s not her fault, but only she will be able to decide how she will, or will not, come to terms with the actions immature adults permitted her to take.I like guns. I hope to teach my grandchildren to shoot skeet and static targets. I will do so the way my grandfather did with me. Carefully, respectful of the weapon, and affection for the grandchild.Respectfully,C.

Blaming the NRA for this incident makes a good visual without indicting the real actors in this drama. Putting an automatic weapon into 9-year old hands is totally irresponsible on the part of every adult involved. Her parents, the instructor, the cashier that sold them the ticket and the range master. Children – or anyone else for that matter – learning to shoot need single shot .22’s – at best. Anything more is preparation for tragedy, and it teaches bad habits that may never extinguish.

You’re wrong. One of the Uzi’s selling points points was easier control and handling. The problem, noted elsewhere in these comments, was the stupidity of the parents and disgusting lack of professionalism on the part of the range personnel. I teared up, thinking of that poor girl, living with this accident. I hope that range goes out of business.

My kids were never allowed “toy” guns. At around 6 years old, I showed my son what a 150 grain 30-06 bullet does to the spine and neck of a deer. I taught he and his sister at age 12 to shoot, safely, and they both went through hunter safety training as well. They both learned to be good marksmen, with rifle, pistol, and shotguns, and had respect for the power of firearms, and their usefulness in securing food, and even for the remote possibility of ever needing them for “self defense” outside a combat zone. The learned the ETHICS of firearms ownership.

Once upon a time, the NRA actually did teach responsible ownership, with the arrival of La Pierre among others (as noted in the book “Ricochet”), that sense of ethical guidance in the NRA went down the toilet. Instead, the focus became handguns, armor piercing bullets in civilian hands, and access to semi-automatic handguns and rifles that are JUST as deadly with large capacity magazines as fully automatic weapons, in fact are more so, because of greater accuracy. The “new” NRA became the NO RATIONAL Alternative group. As a gun owner, a responsible one, I can’t support that group, or the mindset of a large portion of their membership.

Saying an Uzi is “easy to control”, in the hands of a nine year old, is pure B.S., its extremely small size, like a MAC, and recoil on automatic, make it almost impossible for any small person to “control”, it’s just a good weapon because it can spray out a lot of death rapidly in a COMBAT situation.

“you are a dumb a$$”said someone posting an insult to a made up character

I bet you are real hoot around the Canadian Professor circles. Pretty much a real piece of work anywhere else it seems.

This incident proves that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

Right?

^ChurchIe: just to let you know that in a rare instance, I totally agree with you on both points!!