Bad Idea: 9-Year-Old & An Uzi

A Lake Havasu City, Ariz., firearms instructor was killed when a nine-year-old girl lost control of an Uzi submachine gun and a bullet hit him in the head.

The incident happened at the Last Stop shooting range, which offers visitors the chance to shoot various full-auto weapons. That's a business that's growing all the time, especially in resort areas like Las Vegas.

Now, I doubt there's anyone who likes popping off a few with a machine gun more than the average SGN reader. He's a guy who will shoot anything from an AM-180 to an M2 .50 cal. as long as the ammo lasts.

But I think we can agree that handing a preteen girl an Uzi and telling her to let 'er rip is a really, really bad idea. A similar incident happened with an Uzi in Massachusetts a few years back, and there was a tragic accident at a large machine gun shoot in which a little girl was crushed when a Minigun tipped over on her.

I am all in favor of kids watching machine guns being shot, and of their shooting them under supervision when they are big enough to handle them. But in this case, a man is dead and a little girl will possibly be mentally scarred for life because someone had her try to shoot a submachine gun that plenty of adults find challenging.

The antis have cynically appropriated the term "gun safety," which is for them a synonym for gun control. But safety remains a top priority for our side, and sometimes safety means the little girl doesn't get to shoot the Uzi.

Shooting machine guns is fun. But so are liquor and sex, and nine-year-olds shouldn't be trying them, either.