tragedy in Mass.

shakes · Post by **shakes** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:31 pm

I'm sure many of you have heard by now about the incident in Mass. about the 8year old who shot himself in the head with an Uzi while at a supervised automatic weapons shoot at a local range. Dont get me wrong this is a horrible incident, but what gets me is the local prosicution is now going after the range at which the event was held. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!! how 'bout you prosicute the father who happens to be a doctor for lack of brains. What idiot in there right mind would let a 8 year old shoot a fully automatic weapon. Maybe the range officials should've had more common sense as well. But if you listen to the fathers excuse as to why he let his son shoot an UZI is because "he's shot other guns including rifles and shotguns and we decided on the Uzi because of its size" how fucking stupid can you be as a parent and he is a doctor of all things, so you would think he might have better judgement than that. When you watch the interviews he's(the father)given its like he doesnt even care that his son is gone, it' like oh well hes gone and what do you want me to do about it. If anybody should be prosicuted it should be this asshole instead of the gun club but that probably wont happen.

BlauBear · Post by **BlauBear** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 6:03 pm

Yes, it was awful, and yes, the father and the instructor were damned fools for letting a child fire an automatic weapon. A prosecutor would go after the club because he wants to shut the range down, not because it makes sense. Dunno if that's because he's anti-gun or because a developer wants the property...

mordecai · Post by **mordecai** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:44 pm

Uzi's come in three sizes. Full, Mini and Micro. Everyone is familiar with the profile of the common Uzi. It's quite large and heavy. Full-auto fire from such a gun is quite controllable. Mini's are about have the size. As the size decreases, they speed up because there is less bolt travel. Mini's are quite a handful, but heavy enough to be controlled. Micro's (which the kid rented) are like buzz-saw razorblades. They empty a mag many times faster than a Full size and it's simple physics. The recoil of a single 9mm cartridge is manageable. 30 cartridge's worth of recoil inside of 1.5 seconds is a lot of energy to control and should probably only be done by those with experience in handling such a beast.

Putting this in his hand is no different than handing him a chainsaw, K12 or hell, a firehose for that matter. With adequate technique, a kid can be taught how to control such a tool, but any novice is going to have troubles without the benefit of instruction and practice. It was a poor recipe. Does it rise to the level of negligence or recklessness is for the laws to decide...

shakes · Post by **shakes** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:01 pm

Mike as a father would you have ever let one of your boys shoot one the uzi's even though you have taught them how to shoot with pistols and rifles. It just blows my mind why anybody with any coomon sence would let there child shoot one of these.

mordecai · Post by **mordecai** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:44 pm

shakes wrote:Mike as a father would you have ever let one of your boys shoot one the uzi's even though you have taught them how to shoot with pistols and rifles. It just blows my mind why anybody with any common sense would let there child shoot one of these.

I have taken my kids to MG shoots before. They love the .22LR MG's but I've never handed them anything larger because I know they can't hold it up much less control it. I would let my teenager use a Full size MG with a lot of instruction and DIRECT supervision, but I also wouldn't let a novice adult handle one of the Micro's under any circumstance, or at least until I left the area.

They're a lot like cars and motorcycles. Do you let your 16 year old kid drive a Geo Metro, a 350 Chevelle or a CBR900? You know what's going to happen in each of those circumstances. Now how about an 8 year old? Don't get me wrong, I let my 8 year old sit on my lap and steer the car down the dead end street but who's really in control?

tbone49 · Post by **tbone49** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:11 am

Wow. does anyone have any links to this incident? We haven't heard about it down here.

Bob Mc Alice · Post by **Bob Mc Alice** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:12 pm

I did not know that Massachusettes allowed it's residents to posses firearms.

Bob259 · Post by **Bob259** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:52 pm

tbone49 wrote:Wow. does anyone have any links to this incident? We haven't heard about it down here.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17 ... etail.html

http://www.startribune.com/nation/33349 ... aDiaMDCiUZ

tbone49 · Post by **tbone49** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:47 pm

Thanks, Bob. Hard to believe.