To wonder what kind of idiot teaches a 9-year-old to use an Uzi

[BadLad]

m.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28948946

A 9-year-old kills her shooting instructor when she loses control of the Uzi he is teaching her to use.

Apparently many (that's right, many) firing ranges have strict rules when teaching children.

Oh well, that's all right then, what was I worried about?

[merrymouse]

To be fair, Tikimon has not defended giving a 9 year old an Uzi.

Equally, people have guns in the UK and children join shooting clubs and go on to win Olympic gold medals.

The area of contention seems to be how many checks there should be before you let somebody use a gun, the regulations they should follow and which guns should be allowed for public use.

It seems that in America you can obtain a gun with less preparation than would be needed in the UK to get a dog from Battersea dogs Home. Greater regulation seems to be a complete no brainer and I suspect the people who don't want it are in a minority. However there seem to be enough of them with enough power to prevent laws being passed.

[TSSDNCOP]

Nusa DH and I were having lunch in a beach bar in Eilat.

Group of Israeli men and women early twenty's all in cozzies, board shorts and Uzis walked in. Grabbed the next table and ordered lunch.

DH and I looked like this

[thegreylady]

Children in UK may shoot in clubs etc. They shoot airpistols at paper targets in controlled conditions. They do not shoot Uzi macine guns at human shaped targets in a semi controlled open space.

[dreamingbohemian]

math I completely agree with your analysis on the sources of fear and the racial/gender aspects. It's noteworthy also how gun sales upticked when Obama came in, despite (as often noted) crime levels going down generally. The largest group buying guns are white men.

An anecdote that might be illustrative: back in DC, I had a friend, a young white man, who was held up at gunpoint one night. He went from being very liberal and laidback to a complete gun nut, convinced he needed a gun to protect himself and no one should take that right away from him.

I tried to reason with him: what if he had had a gun that night? A car had rolled up next to him, a shotgun appeared in the window and they demanded his wallet. What if he had had a gun and he pulled it out right then? They would have blown his head off. So how would a gun help?

But he could not be reasoned with. He was determined to have a gun.

It occurred to me that this lovely young white man from a nice suburb had probably never really gone about in the world living with fear in the way that women and minorities do. We take it for granted, not walking home by ourselves late at night and so on, in a way that men don't. So it was a real shock to him.

I saw a similar thing after 9/11 in DC, with many white men suddenly becoming neo-cons and wanting to blow things up.

It's the shock of feeling vulnerable in a population that historically has safely ruled the country and the world really. They can't live with that fear. It's an existential threat to them.

[merrymouse]

I think many People just like having guns. If you say you need a gun for self defence but you can't be bothered to have a police interview, choose a more suitable gun than an ak47, have proper training, fill in paperwork, put up with a waiting period etc. etc. then you don't really want a gun for self defence, you just want to play with a gun. You can have jack bauer's car so why not his gun too?

Similarly the customers at bullets and burgers just want to create a real life video game experience. They haven't thought that much about the reality of war and they wouldn't bother to do it if you couldn't just rock up and use a gun as easily as you can board a roller coaster.

[LynetteScavo]

I was discussing this with DH...I found the footage of the girl a bit upsetting, a she could have been my 9yo DD. Just for the record, like hell would I have put my DD in that situation. DH agreed and said there was no say he would give our DD a catapult, even under supervision, if he wanted to keep both of his eyes.

But seriously, there are some things children should just not do. I wonder if the same parents would let their DD gamble large amounts of money in a casino, if the law allowed it? Would there be headlines saying a child has gambled away the family home? Somehow, I expect, so.

Which is why tighter regulations are required, and children shouldn't be allowed to handle guns.

I'll go as far as saying under 18s shouldn't join the armed forces.

[nocoolnamesleft]

Every time I hear the "it's the person not the gun" argument, I want to ask "in that case, why don't you see how many people you can kill by just throwing the bullets at them".

[Pixel]

Did anyone see the article in the DM today? There were some little girls aged around 7 pictured standing in their pink bedrooms holding their pink rifles. There's a company that apparently sells 60,000 of them a year (blue ones for boys too) aimed at children aged 4 to 10 . The reporter is supposed to have asked the girls what they were afraid of and their answers were burglars, zombies and the like. There was one girl wanted to shoot dinosaurs and another said sharks, this was how immature and mixed up they were in their thinking and their grasp of reality. Scary. What if a scared little girl sees the window cleaner and imagining he is a burglar or a zombie, shoots him in the face?

[extremepie]

I really hope those kids with the pink and blue guns are not allowed free access to them when they are in the home Pixel, the thought is scary :/

What 4 to 10 yr old would need to defend their home from intruders/burglars etc anyway? Wouldnt the adult in the home be doing that? So why on earth would they need their own gun or need to learn how to shoot one? Boggles my mind :(

[sweetnessandlite]

Only in America!

Does anybody know that:

It is illegal to sell and buy Kinder Surprise Eggs in the USA, (people bring them back from Canada)- because they pose a danger to children,
BUT:
It's ok for every man and his dog to bear arms.


souvenirfinder.com/2014/01/22/kinder-surprise-chocolate-egg-souvenir-fine-illegal-customs/


Don't have this egg, because you might choke on the small parts, but here's a gun instead

[mymummademelistentoshitmusic]

Odd that - we never got an Uzi in a kinder egg.

[DogCalledRudis]

Its a very sad freak ACCIDENT. Accidents happen with anything really.

[Pagwatch]

Well yes. But an accident with a bicycle pump or a banana rarely kills.

[Pagwatch]

God no!
It's the ultimate force, tazer banana and I keep it in safe-mode, obviously.
I'm all about safe banana play.

[mymummademelistentoshitmusic]

Dogcalledrudi sorry but that wasn't an accident. That was stupidity, carelessness and negligence.

[syne]

aren't all accidents?

[Pagwatch]

No. Accidents are, you know, accidents.
As this thread evidences, stupidity is just stupidity.

[wanttosinglikemarycoughlan]

I wouldn't call that a freak accident. Freak accidents are rare and unexpected

The idea that there are all good and all bad people is a strange one. One of my friends is heavily into guns (born and bred UK)
We cannot agree so we just have to avoid the subject
He thinks the safest world is one in which everyone carries a gun because then the good guys will outnumber the bad
I think good people can do bad things in a moment of madness

He is part of a gun club and they have a shoot. The birds are fed and a practically tame. They dress up in camouflage gear and sit in hides to shoot the tame birds. I find it all pretty pathetic really, harmless I guess unless you are one of the birds

[PausingFlatly]

The freakish and rare part of the above was the "giving a 9 yr old a submachine gun".

The result was an entirely normal and predictable outcome of giving children submachine guns. You won't get a casualty every single time; but you will get casualties.