Tragic accident: boy firing Uzi at a gun fair shoots himself and dies.
(Note: As with any accident that occurs in split-seconds, I encourage everyone to be patient for the results of the investigation.)
A Massachusetts boy has died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot would at a gun fair being held in Westfield, MA. The 8-year-old boy was firing a full-auto weapon, an Uzi submachine gun, when he lost control of the weapon and was shot in the head. From the story:
With an instructor watching, an 8-year-old boy at a gun fair aimed an Uzi submachine gun at a pumpkin and pulled the trigger as his dad reached for a camera.
It was his first time shooting a fully automatic gun, and the recoil of the weapon was too much for him. He lost control and fatally shot himself in the head.
Now gun safety experts — and some gun enthusiasts at the club where the shooting happened — are wondering why such a young child was allowed to fire a weapon used in war. Local, state and federal authorities are also investigating whether everyone involved had proper licenses or if anyone committed a criminal act.
I’ve personally fired the type of weapon being used in this situation and it should be no surprise to anyone who’s ever done so that the barrel of the weapon rises as you fire it on full auto. It’s not too difficult to maintain control of it if you’ve got adult-sized hands and the mass to back them up. You see, when I saw the headline on this and noted the age of the shooter, the 1st question in my head was “yeah, but how big was he?” My daughter’s 7½ but she’d be hard pressed to get her hands around the forward grip of an Uzi and that’s using both of them. The gun also has a mass that’s a significant percentage of hers and the recoil – light and controllable for me – would present a force equivalent to roughly half of her arm-strength.
In short, there’s no way at all that I’d let her fire a fully-automatic weapon without my own hands being on the weapon along with hers.
I’ll wait for the investigation to complete before I weigh in fully, but I also can’t believe the boy was holding the weapon raised to his shoulder. He was likely holding it low and to his side – Hollywood “from the hip” style – when he pulled the trigger. That’s the only way I can think of that the barrel would rotate up tightly enough to put the shooters own head into the line of fire. Again, though, let’s wait for the official findings.
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This is just so sad, my heart goes out to his family.
Ric I admait I don’t know a lot about gun laws, are automatic guns legal in all states?
Comment by Not Jeff W. | October 28, 2008
Yes, they are – so long as the gun was manufacturered prior to 1986. There’s no federal law prohibiting the private ownership of automatic weapons. The actual sale of such is a highly regulated process that not everyone can do. The market is in machine guns that were in private ownership prior to the 1986 ban.
There’s a good writeup here, if you’d like to know more.
Comment by Ric James | October 28, 2008
Ric, Yours is the clearest most concise, non defensive answer I have ever heard to a question about guns and gun ownership.
I have a VERY pro NRA friend. I’ve said to him many times that I believe the NRA does themselves so much more harm than good. Whenever they are asked a question they, in the person of Wayne La Pierre (sp) is just so obnoxious and defensive he turns people off.
Some people like me really are simply asking to be informed and educated. But when a question is ask the response is attacking and defensive it’s hard to continue the conversation. It also leads to further confusion.
Comment by Not Jeff W. | October 29, 2008
Ric is wrong on several counts.
1. The National Firearms Act of 1934 made it illegal for civilians to own machine guns without special permission from the U.S. Treasury Department. Machine guns are subject to a $200 tax every time their ownership changes from one federally registered owner to another, and each new weapon is subject to a manufacturing tax when it is made, and it must be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in its National Firearms Registry.
2. Since the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of May 19, 1986, ownership of newly manufactured machine guns has been prohibited to civilians.
3. Machine guns which were manufactured prior to the 1986 Act’s passage are regulated under the National Firearms Act, but those manufactured after the ban cannot ordinarily be sold to or owned by civilians.
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcfullau.html
Comment by King Kong | November 21, 2008