Why was a 9 year old learning to shoot an uzi?

Some adults will tell you that they learned to respect the power of a gun at an early age – and that learning to shoot a gun was a part of their growing up process.
But I don’t think they learned to shoot an uzi.

When I first saw this story of the 9 year old who, while learning to shoot an uzi, accidentally killed the instructor – I thought I was seeing things.

Who allows a 9 year old to learn to shoot an uzi? There’s other weaponry more appropriate to learn to handle – but an uzi?

The right to bear arms comes with responsibility – like the responsibility of knowing that a gun such as an uzi is too powerful a gun for a 9 year old girl to shoot.

It’s comparable to giving the same 9 year old the keys to a semi and trying to teach her how to drive it – and then goes into a wall.

The problem here is that someone who was a licensed gun instructor is dead – and that “Monday morning quarterbacking” comes much too easily.

According to the story:

Charles Vacca, 39, of Lake Havasu City, died Monday shortly after being airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Mohave County sheriff’s officials said.

Vacca was standing next to the girl at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills located at a restaurant called Bullets and Burgers when she pulled the trigger and the recoil sent the gun over her head, investigators said.

Authorities said the girl was at the shooting range with her parents. Her name was not released. ABC News reports no charges will be filed in the case.
KTNV reports that Vacca was married and was enlisted in the U.S. Army reserve with over a dozen years of military experience.

The website for Bullets and Burgers, according to CNN, said children between the ages of 8 and 17 can fire a weapon at the range if their parents are present. Owner Sam Scarmado tells ABC News that “we instruct kids as young as five with .22 rifles and they don’t get to handle high-powered firearms. But they’re under the supervision of their parents and of our professional range masters.”

Ronald Scott, a Phoenix-based firearms safety expert, said most shooting ranges have an age limit and strict safety rules when teaching children to shoot. He said instructors usually have their hands on guns when children are firing high-powered weapons.

“You can’t give a 9-year-old an Uzi and expect her to control it,” Scott said.

So who’s the more irresponsible party? The operators of the range, the parents, the instructor? (Hard to blame him at this stage of the game!)

I think you always have to go to the parents. While the range claims to have an age limit, and the instructor should have known that an uzi is too powerful a weapon for a 9 year old girl to learn to shoot – what parent wants their 9 year old to learn to shoot an uzi?

Would you allow your 9 year old to learn how to handle a gun?