quite possibly the worst story of the month

[rone]

When they use the phrase "adult supervision", i don't think it means what they think it means.  What the fuck were these people thinking?

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

It just makes me sick.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

Sweet Jesus.

As an ADULT I'd find handling something like that challenging, what on Earth made anyone think it was good idea to let an 8-year-old fire it?

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

No kidding. It's one thing to let your 16-year-old learn to drive a Celica, and another to put them behind the wheel of a Dodge Viper.

I can't believe nobody else had their hand on or above the gun, even if he was a big 8-year-old.

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

Especially horrible and ironic is the father's profession. At a HOSPITAL. WTF, indeed.

I started out being snarky enough to laugh at the police officer who said "backfire" instead of "recoil", and then thought, No, that must have been pretty horrific. He's allowed to be shaken enough to not have vocabulary.

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

*good grief*

Yeah, that's probably a news story that will make the top 5 bad things I've heard this week. It's rare as you know, but it happens. I can't believe the parent gave an 8 year old permission to shoot that sort of weapon. It makes you wonder if that adult has any business at an event like that, himself. And the brother? Yeah, likely to be a client one day...

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

Police said the boy, Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., was with a certified instructor and called the death a “self-inflicted accidental shooting.”

I'm a little disturbed by that conjuction, "and". Presumably, they mean "Police said... and called..." and not that the boy "was with ... and called..."

[crisper.livejournal.com]

Shit, Carmel's gonna see this and it'll be another ten years before she'll even consider letting Liana get the small arms experience she so clearly needs.

[crisper.livejournal.com]

That being said, having fired an Uzi, that fucker is a wild weasel looking to bite the hand that feeds it and definitely *not* the right choice of SMG for an 8-year old. Not when something like the MP-5 exists.

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Having worked in the firearms industry and more specifically in the realm of automatic weapons galore, I can respond unequivocally with:

"There is NO choice of sub-gun for an 8 year old. Period. Ever."

[vatine]

Why the F were they letting an 8-year-old fire a full-auto weapon in the first place? SMG, combat rifle, what-have-you. They do (in general) not have sufficient musculature to deal with the recoil. OK, the 16 years that's the "full-auto" minimum limit in Sweden is partially because it is also the limit for blank-firing combat simulation, but, jeez.

[smashingstars.livejournal.com]

I found this article while looking for something to explain the comments here about the father's job:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/10/police_identify_6.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed6

The father apparently thought the gun was small and light enough for his kid to use. That seems so odd to me, that a man who apparently loves himself some guns thought an 8-year-old could handle an Uzi. He'd probably been promising this to his kid for months.

[heliumbreath.livejournal.com]

Sheesh, the lighter the thing is the more it will recoil with a given round; that's just elementary basic Newtonian physics. Add that to something that wants to come back around on the pitch axis with each round and you've got very bad news if you can't control it. And I'd heard of a similar accident with a grownup failing to handle a .50 handgun years ago, so it's not like a new concept that people had an excuse to be unaware of. The advice that time, and probably good advice still, is that when you fire an unfamiliar semiauto for the first time, load one round only and find out about the recoil before trying two, and only then try a full magazine. But everyone's got to be macho and go straight for the full rock'n'roll joy and not be cautious.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

I think the Uzi falls into the "Machine Pistol" category which, despite puts it below the MP5 (despite that MP stands for Machine Pistol, last I checked), and above the Glock ...18? 20? that's basically a handgun that can select for full-auto.

I think the relevant distiction is that with MP-5 and larger, your second hand can stabilize the gun from somewhere other than the same spot as your first hand. MP5 takes all kinds of accessories including a folding stock or an extra handle near the business end, whereas the Uzi remains a short gun with a long clip, like the Tec-9.

[vatine]

I _think_ the Uzi comes with a folding stock and stuff and from the looks if things it has a grip in front of the trigger. But, then, I havenät handled one, so I mostly speculate from (possibly incorrect) pictorial evidence.

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Whomever let the kid a) into the event and b) let him have that weapon, should be arrested and charged. It's stupid shit like this that validates every anti-gun blanket statement out there. *sigh* I've fired an UZI quite a bit and I'm awestruck someone could have been so dumb.

Would this be a bad time to talk about pre-adolescent soldiers?

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

Or is that just going to FREAK our liberal friends out, when they learn that in many countries the war lords use pre-adolescent soldiers, so that they have some seriously kick assed NCO's by the time they are teenagers....

At which point we get to ask the other side of the question, what is so wrong with public school educations that an 8 year old boy does NOT understand the safety requirements associated with using personal point defense weapon systems.

Now more than ever, we need our own Caribou Barbie to change the way that the failed liberal educational system has been stabbing our troops in the back with the failure to get them the cheaper child labor that would be available in the Free Trade In Free Markets...

Re: Would this be a bad time to talk about pre-adolescent soldiers?

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

According to the story, the boy was a "certified instructor." If that's accurate, then lack of education wasn't really the problem here.

(re-reading your comment, I suspect I have been hooked. well played if so.)

Re: Would this be a bad time to talk about pre-adolescent soldiers?

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

Oh they have to be stoned in more places...

as for hooking... the tragedy is that I feel for pre-adolescent soldier's around the world. It is a part of my understanding, having been able to field strip my first military grade Full Automatic Assault Weapon before I was 11, but that was merely 'traditional family values' - the part of the reality space that went with the father/son bonding that 'the gun came with the job'.

The was nothing my father could do with the fact that my introduction to international terrorist geopolitical warfare event sequences preceded my learning that girls had teats, and/or that they are much more interesting to play field stripping sequences with....

My introduction to modern low intensity asynchronous warfare scenarioization occurred right after walking that really cute young mathematician home, and being all polite and civil, and then trying to make tracks back home to get my feet under father's table before dinner was served... and those Cheese Eating Surrender Monkie Commie Rat Bastards thot that blowing something up on behalf of the Great Socialist Solidatarity should take precedence over my interests.... FREAKING RED COMMIE RAT BASTARDS!!!!

Remind me again, in my next life, normal parents, normal neighborhoods, normal life sequences.... Clearly Teats Before Tactical Deployments...


oh yes, Please note, the child was with, not that he was, a certified instructor.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

There is so much wrong with that I don't know where to begin.

You'd think the kid's father had seen enough gunshot wounds that he'd never want his kid around guns at all.

Let alone a gun like that.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

Y HELO THAR, the other end of my state. Um.

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

Under Heavy Manners? Geek.

BTW, this show (http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?artist=16&show=1301) is pretty cool.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Trumpets! I can hear trumpets!

Wow, two drum kits again? Wild.

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

Really? Trumpets? Which song? What time?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, it's the first line (http://www.lyricstime.com/david-byrne-under-heavy-manners-lyrics.html) to "Under Heavy Manners".

[tronpublic.livejournal.com]

Geek.

[benchilada.livejournal.com]

There's no excuse for this, under any circumstances, yet I know people who will blame the parent for poor gun safety, not because they let their kid handle a fucking automatic weapon to begin with.