Comments on: Tragic

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:29:31 +0000

i can’t imagine what the family is going through. And, yes, quite a bit of second guessing going on.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:03:34 +0000

I was there at the MG shoot. I thought the event was run well. There were plenty of youth shooting MGs of all sorts that did not get hurt that day or the day before. Would I have let my 9 year old son shoot a micro-Uzi prior to this? I don’t know. Maybe. But this tragic ending would not have been a scenario that crossed my mind in considering whether I�d let him or not. I am not perfect and cannot divine all future events.

I know now, at the cost of this young boy’s life AND WITH HINDSIGHT, that a micro-Uzi is probably not a good choice for a novice of any age. But, I’ll honestly say that I couldn’t have foreseen this ending if it didn’t actually happen. I am not ignorant or stupid or lacking in experience with a myriad of rifles and handguns… just would not have thought this ending was a forgone conclusion. Risky, yes. For certain that death/injury would ensue, no.

So call the dad ignorant or say he should have known better or jump to whatever conclusion that you are so certain about. The bottom line is that everyone that wasn’t there is armchair quarterbacking. Even with the greatest preparations and expert oversight, accidents can and do still happen. There is no 100% guarantee of safety in anything in life. Statistically, the child probably had a higher risk of dying in a car accident on the way to the MG shoot. Sometimes life betrays statistics and that’s called tragedy.

We should hold the family in our thoughts and prayers instead of contempt. There is a lesson in this for all; that life as we think we know it can be changed in a fraction of a second.

Just my opinion anyway.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:21:15 +0000

We give our kids bicycles, scooters, skateboards and skis, knowing full well they’re going to be injured on them. We teach them to drive, knowing full well they’re going to end up in an accident at some point.

Still, Unc is right– the kid should not have been handed an Uzi without first learning more about controlling recoil (actually this would be more accurately described as “thrust”) from a little subgun.

By: Billy Beck

Billy Beck — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:01:26 +0000

These are machines. They require explicit conscious control consequential to understanding exactly what they do and how they do it.

This is why no sensible person would let an eight year-old just jump in the car and drive around, or pose him for a photograph with a table-saw.

Jesus. The only one I feel sorry for is the kid, who needed a responsible parent on the scene.

By: DirtCrashr

DirtCrashr — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:26:24 +0000

I enjoyed shooting Jim’s FNC, but trying to hold a cheekweld or a “weld” of any sort – the shock-pulse vibration just made my glasses bounce up and down at a rate that effectively quadrupled my vision and negated muzzle control.
Maybe that’s why the AK-crackers in Africa hold them way up in the air over their heads and fire?

By: Paul Simer

Paul Simer — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:30:46 +0000

I *like* recoil, and I don’t think I would shoot a fully-loaded micro Uzi without a warm-up (one round, three rounds, five rounds…). To put such a compact and fast-rising auto in the hands of a little kid is lunacy.