Nine-Year-Old Girl Handed Fully Automatic Weapon At Gun Range, Leads To Tragedy
The tone and content of this article doesn’t align with this site, I realize, but I can’t stop thinking about this story. I need a therapeutic release, and this is it.
If you missed the tragic story out of Arizona, let me catch you up. A New Jersey family, who was traveling through Arizona on vacation, stopped at a shooting range in Dolan Springs. A unique selling point of this particular shooting range, Bullets and Burgers, is its wide selection of fully automatic weapons to choose from.
From their website:
Our guests have the opportunity to fire a wide range of fully automatic machine guns and specialty weapons. You will choose the guns which you want to shoot from our extensive collection and we provide the eye/ear protection, ammunition, and expert guidance.
Tragedy struck when a nine-year-old member of the family was handed a fully automatic 9mm uzi. With 39-year-old shooting instructor Charles Vacca at her side, the girl fired a round in single-shot mode. After a few encouraging words for the girl, Vacca switched the uzi to fully automatic-mode and gave her the green light to fire away by telling her, “Alright! Full auto!” The girl was not able to withstand the recurring recoil of the gun. She shot Vacca in the head. He was airlifted to a Vegas hosptial where he was declared dead on Monday night.
You can watch the sequence here. IMPORTANT NOTE: The video cuts off moments before Vacca is shot.
There’s plenty to take away from this. First and foremost, thoughts go out to friends and family of Charles Vacca, whose life was cut way too short by such an avoidable accident. Secondly, I can’t fathom a thought process that leads to handing a nine-year-old a fully automatic machine gun. Is she too young to hold a firearm? Under the guidance and supervision of an adult, and using a small enough caliber for her to handle, nah, not in my opinion.
This is an uzi, though–a fully automatic machine gun that shoots 9mm rounds. The below video shows an up-close look at the recoil caused by the same gun. And don’t let the hat fool you, that’s a grown man handling this uzi, and he’s using a shoulder stock to better control the recoil.
This poor girl will forever bear the unimaginable guilt of this tragedy, even though the responsibility lies solely on the adults who put this gun in her hands. So sad.
Image via YouTube
You know damn right that girl didn’t wake up one day and ask her parents if they’d take her to the range to shoot an Uzi…. I’d say shame the parents but the guilt I’m sure they already feel pales in comparison.
10 years ago at 11:49 amBut I thought guns don’t kill people…people kill people. Why is everyone blaming the uzi and not the girl?
10 years ago at 11:53 amNo one is blaming the Uzi you fuck. They’re blaming the tragic idocracy of the parents and the instructors for letting a nine year old shoot a fully automatic firearm.
10 years ago at 12:24 pmHere’s a classic example of a person who didn’t read the article
10 years ago at 3:16 pmWell I read the article and the comments in their entirety… Plenty of mentions about the uzi and its automatic nature. Can’t have it both ways…So which is it, is the gun or the person responsible for the stray shot… because I’m pretty sure the article mentioned her shooting the gun just fine on single shot mode.
Registered gun owner.
10 years ago at 3:35 pmThat’s a false choice. Sometimes it’s the person using the gun (like a murderer); more rarely, the gun itself is the problem (like an improperly manufactured gun); and sometimes, the gun is in the hands of someone that can’t control it, or can’t control their actions with it.
The situation here is clearly the last – she could not control the gun. The tragedy here is that the accident was foreseeable, and her parents or the gun range instructor shouldn’t have allowed her to be using an automatic weapon in the first place.
10 years ago at 5:52 pmWhere I come from we use the term “semi-auto”, not fucking “single shot mode”. Registered gun owner my ass, BB guns don’t count, and any gun owner worth their salt doesn’t register shit.
10 years ago at 1:59 amHe isn’t lying, he is registered on Call of Duty.
10 years ago at 7:37 amHey fucko, you know what else kills people? Knives. Are they usually to blame for death? No, because the knife is only the instrument used, there is a person using it to kill. Knives, tools. Guns, tools. You, fucking tool.
10 years ago at 2:13 amif the barrell of the gun is bigger than the arms of the shooter, expect them to lose control after the backfire. No point for someone BEFORE THEY ARE EVEN TEN to be shooting a fully automatic.
10 years ago at 12:12 pmJust… stop. Barrell? Backfire? Really man, c’mon. Ignorant people piss me off. And please, show me a gun with a “barrell” that is bigger than the arm of a newborn. Go back to suckling Hillary’s test, you liberal hipster.
10 years ago at 1:55 amyupp, you got my exaggeration, and i really apologize, is kick back a better term for you? So sorry to piss YOU off, and im not too sure what hillary’s test is. I think you mean teet, but im ignorant so you probably did mean to say test.
10 years ago at 8:22 amI think the term you are looking for is “recoil”, chief.
10 years ago at 10:33 amIve shot a full auto Uzi, and me standing 5’11 and 230, It was hard to control because of the lack of framework to hold on too. I blame the parents and instructors for this incident, who pays big bucks to lets a 9 year old girl who a full automatic weapon, and who the hell with formal firearms training lets a girl shoot full auto. This girl could have had a great story to tell her friends how she shoot an Uzi in the Arizona dessert during a family vacation, but now she’s scarred for life with the image of her shooting a man’s head off.
10 years ago at 12:13 pm“hard to control because of the lack of framework”
Good point that I didn’t consider. That’s a small firearm to be kicking as much as it does. There are adults that shouldn’t even handle an uzi.
10 years ago at 12:23 pmThis is just a complete lack of responsibility and foresight. 🙁
10 years ago at 12:28 pmWho gives a shit? Waaaaah I feel so bad wah. Get over it.
10 years ago at 12:16 pmLaps. Don’t stop until I tell you otherwise.
10 years ago at 12:19 pmHave some fucking respect and go find some dignity.
10 years ago at 3:26 pmNo thanks.
10 years ago at 9:46 pmYou’re a pathetic little attention-seeking bitch. Clearly your family didn’t love you enough, and all of your friends hate you. I’m sure you’ll deflect this, but deep down, you know it’s true.
10 years ago at 2:21 amSurprised the NRA did come out to say this is all apart of defending your rights
10 years ago at 12:26 pmAs someone who was raised around guns, I can’t imagine being 9 years old and shooting an automatic weapon. That being said, the irresponsibility shown by the parents, instructor, and range is beyond words. Accidents like this can be prevented by simple common sense, something alot of people seem to lack nowadays.
10 years ago at 12:40 pmDorn don’t you know anything; they give AK47s to 9 yr olds in Africa all the time and it works out pretty well for the various warlords and sectarian militias.
10 years ago at 12:43 pmAn UZI is very difficult for anyone to control, unlike an AK. I have to agree that letting that little girl firing that weapon FA after popping off one round was a very bad decision. Now that poor girl, her family, and the instructors family will have this haunting them the rest of their lives.
10 years ago at 9:51 pm*fire
10 years ago at 9:51 pmBad aim is NF
10 years ago at 12:55 pmIt’s a nine year old little girl and you’re talking about her being NF you’ve obviously completely missed the entire point of the article
10 years ago at 1:01 pmI learned two things thanks to you.1, you’re an inconsiderate moron fucktard. 2, the take a lap button can only be used once on here.
10 years ago at 1:52 pmGreat. Now the libtards are going to have a field day about this poor tragedy. Thoughts go out to both families though. Hopefully most people see this for what it really was. Poor judgment by the instructor and parents of this poor 9 year old girl.
10 years ago at 1:13 pm