Range instructor shot

[Steelgrave]

I dont see a problem with shooting at 8.  Having said that giving a kid an Uzi is pretty stupid.

An instructor on a news program put it this way...."it's not about gun laws, it's about common sense". I couldn't agree more. The instructor paid the ultimate price for his carelessness, the girl will be paying for this the rest of her life.

[LongBlade]

This isn't the first time an incident with a child has happened.

About a year ago there was an unfortunate accident where a ~10 year old kid had a full auto Uzi and killed himself.

I wondered at that time what they were thinking.

I'm not sure what circumstances arose for these instructors to decide a full auto was appropriate for a child of that age, but I most certainly wouldn't have handed them a full magazine. Allow them to at least become accustomed to firing two shots, then three, then four on full auto. Handing them (or anyone, frankly) a ten or twenty round magazine for the first time seems unwise in the extreme.

[jejo68]

Unfortunately you cant make Laws that stops people being stupid.

[mirth]

Unfortunately you cant make Laws that stops people being stupid.

True, but you can at least make them accountable for their stupidity.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a law that penalized the ranges and instructors for this kind of serious lapse in judgement.

[GDS_Starfury]

True, but you can at least make them accountable for their stupidity.

I think we can safely state that the instructor was held accountable.

[Staggerwing]

True.

What happened to the instructor/range owner from the previous incident involving the death of the young boy? Was he sanctioned in any way?

[mirth]

True, but you can at least make them accountable for their stupidity.

I think we can safely state that the instructor was held accountable.

Unfortunately a little girl now gets to spend the rest of her life dealing with his "accountability".

[GDS_Starfury]

at 8 years old it will be a distant memory sooner rather then later.

[JudgeDredd]

at 8 years old it will be a distant memory sooner rather then later.

Seriously?  :o

[MikeGER]

at 8 years old it will be a distant memory sooner rather then later.

Seriously?  :o

can you remember anything (hopefully not so traumatic, so let say something positive from last year kindergarten or first school year) from that early time? (in addition human psyche has the tendency to let you forget bad emotions ...until they get trigger by: a smell, a taste, a sound, a picture, a item )

... she may have problems later (persuaded guild) from constantly been told about it by others (esp mean children and juveniles) , but with the help of a good Psychologist she will learn to deal with the trauma as an adult   

[JudgeDredd]

MikeGer I can remember a shed load of things from my youth...nothing even remotely touching this level of trauma either. My short term memory is a different matter.

I just met up with a woman I hadn't seen since I was 9 in 1976. The reason I met her was because I remembered her. I had a crush on her. I remember her being at the school and then I remember the next day she wasn't. I was "kind of" heart broken...and I still felt that whenever I remembered that image of her standing in the playground looking at me when she told me her mum was thinking about moving. Then she wasn't there. Now that was obviously a big deal to me because I remember it - and so vividly...but it doesn't even touch shooting an instructor in the face at point blank range with an Uzi!

Something like that is not going to leave a child's head...no way! Details? Dates? Times? Who was there? Where was it? They might go or be vague - but actually shooting the guy in the face and killing another human? Is anyone seriously telling me that would leave a child's mind?

Question for you GDS - do you remember any single event where you went hunting when you were a kid with your dad?

[JudgeDredd]

I'll leave this again and take it off my watch list.

I was interested - genuinely interested - in thoughts across the board - from people on this but I think suggesting a young child will not remember the event is ridiculous in the extreme to me.

[MikeGER]

Judge, you approach the incident like an adult (and a responsible loving dad of daughters) O:-)

see it with the eyes of a 6 year old ... 'she will not remember' is not meant as 'she don't care'  but in a psychological 'blocked out' -way... 

your funny story was from a 9 year old boy , try to dig deeper in time and you will find out ...you just cant get back to 5 or 6, only with a 'trigger' or maybe in a medical hypnosis. 

also there are even  false 'planted memories' of early years, that are not real memories, but memories that got generated some years later when you look a pictures of early childhood and get stories told about it  ... like: 'look i found a box here with 10 year Polaroid picture, can you remember our first vacation at the beach your were 5 then, look how you dig the sandcastle'... you will add that scene to your memories, and now may later  'remember' - a sandcastle digging ..even if that never happend (while the picture-association was a mistage and its no you in the picture it was your cousin and taken 2 years later)

there are psychological experiments with testpersons, who get shown such kind of picture (no their own , bu they get told they are the toddler in the pic)  and they start remembering a situation that never happend  and even add more fluff to the story , like i remember the red Bobbycar was a gift from granddad motherside n such ... even so they had a tricycle instead and that granddad had passed away 3 years earlier...   

i love reading those psychological articles in 'Spektrum der Wissenschaft' over the decades    :)

[BanzaiCat]

Depends quite a bit on the family and how they help her deal with it.

If the family chooses to sue the range for 'traumatic' injuries to their child (given the litigious nature of the U.S., this is more likely than not), that would drag it out for several years and might not get settled or decided until she's a teenager. If that happens, it depends too on how much testifying she'd have to do, but she'd certainly have to do it at least once to describe what happened - despite there being a video showing all the terrible details.

[GDS_Starfury]

its not like the guys head exploded all over the place.  from what Ive read the accident happened and the parents pretty much scooped the girl up and went to a different part of the range after the accident.  the guy died later at the hospital not at the scene.