9-Year-Old's Uzi Tragedy Reveals Wild World Of Gun Tourism

[CreekDog]

9-Year-Old's Uzi Tragedy Reveals Wild World Of Gun Tourism

By MICHELLE RINDELS AND JACQUES BILLEAUD PublishedAugust 28, 2014, 9:41 AM EDT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The death of an Arizona firearms instructor by a 9-year-old girl who was firing a fully automatic Uzi displayed a tragic side of what has become a hot industry in the U.S.: gun tourism.

With gun laws keeping high-powered weapons out of reach for most people — especially those outside the U.S. — indoor shooting ranges with high-powered weapons have become a popular attraction.

Tourists from Japan flock to ranges in Waikiki, Hawaii, and the dozen or so that have cropped up in Las Vegas offer bullet-riddled bachelor parties and literal shotgun weddings, where newly married couples can fire submachine gun rounds and pose with Uzis and ammo belts.

...

The accidental shooting death of the firing-range instructor in Arizona set off a powerful debate over youngsters and guns, with many people wondering what sort of parents would let a child handle a submachine gun.

...

The dusty outdoor range calls itself the Bullets and Burgers Adventure and touts its "Desert Storm atmosphere."

...

"We have better safety standards for who gets to ride a roller coaster at an amusement park," said Gerry Hills, founder of Arizonans for Gun Safety, a group seeking to reduce gun violence. Referring to the girl's parents, Hills said: "I just don't see any reason in the world why you would allow a 9-year-old to put her hands on an Uzi."

In 2008, an 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head with an Uzi at a gun expo near Springfield, Massachusetts. Christopher Bizilj was firing at pumpkins when the gun kicked back. A former Massachusetts police chief whose company co-sponsored the gun show was later acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gun-tourism-grows-in-popularity-in-recent-years

[underpants]

1. Hold on there Gerry, why SHOULDN'T a 9 year old be able to handle an Uzi?

I don't see any age restriction mentioned in the 2nd Amendment. Are you trying to regulate arms??

[samsingh]

2. an easy in each hand would be even better

[underpants]

9. |

Damn you autocorrect !!

But it is a bit funny that Uzi corrects to easy

[samsingh]

17. i just noticed it - i meant UZI in each hand.

[DontTreadOnMe]

3. Yeah! We we BORN right out of the womb with the right to operate a gun!

What could go wrong?

[samsingh]

18. shouldn't unborn children have the right to bear arms too?

[raven mad]

28. +1

[Arugula Latte]

62. Hell, sperm and eggs need gunz 'n' ammo!

[hack89]

6. Yes, but the Supreme Court has said strict gun control is perfectly constitutional

which is why they need to make gun tourism like this illegal. Automatic weapons are not toys.

[Ikonoklast]

23. NO weapon is a toy.

I shoot at a private range on a private campground owned by an old friend; pistol, rifle, skeet and trap.

This weekend my father and mother, two of my three children and their SO's with my grandchildren, other friends with their families will all be there, fishing, camping, shooting for three days, around thirty plus people in all will be there for the holiday weekend.

About twenty of us or so are shooters.


The range safety rules we follow and enforce make most other places I've done any shooting seem ridiculously lax.

I've seen what is allowed by some NRA trained RSO's and instructors at some ranges and shudder.


None of my children shot anything bigger than a .177 pellet gun until they were twelve, then it was a bolt-action .22, one round handed out and loaded at a time. None of my kids shot a semi-auto anything until they were old enough to purchase one.

[Jeneral2885]

10. The Second Amendment didn't even say what sort of arms

should have given her a ballistic missile. Such arms/weapons have stricter safety procedures.

[underpants]

12. Plus

The people standing next to the missile are not the ones that need to be worried.

[Jeneral2885]

25. have you read how ballistic missiles systems

are? There's a huge range of codes passed down by 2 man rules and safeguards, including background and psychological tests of those even maintaining the missiles. In contrast, to own, touch or fire a gun doesnt require such tests.

[underpants]

27. )

I was just over at Clickhole (The Onion's Buzzfeed type site ) and your post was like reading something there

[Jeneral2885]

48. I don't

post at that site.

[MineralMan]

4. My father is a hunter, or was in his younger years.

I didn't touch a firearm until I was 10, and that was a BB gun. At 12, I started shooting a .22 rifle, but only at the range.

Firearms safety instruction started way earlier than that.

My dad's a smart guy.

[tridim]

21. My early gun experience was similar, and by age 15 I was completely uninterested.

Puberty helped me decide what was really important, girls.

[MineralMan]

22. Girls, indeed.

Intoxicatingly interesting they were when I was age 15 and beyond.

[Warpy]

26. My first experience with the real thing was at camp

with a .22 rifle. I couldn't hit the back end of a bull with a bass fiddle at camp because they got angry when I tried to sight with my left eye, the one I could see out of.

However, taking turns with my drunken dad plinking his empties in a lake with an air pistol was fun.

I have never owned a gun as an adult, never wanted one. These days I'd be a menace with one since my sight is so bad.

[underpants]

5. Genghis Cohen - wow that's a name

"People just want to experience things they can't experience elsewhere," said Genghis Cohen, owner of Machine Guns Vegas. "There's not an action movie in the past 30 years without a machine gun."

There are some other interesting names on that article but that sounds like a joke name for someone in a band. And I do mean to make fun of him because of his name - it just stood out to me

[kentauros]

13. Genghis doesn't know many action movies, then.

Hero
House of Flying Daggers
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi

Not to mention that his namesake didn't have any guns during his reign. But, I guess I should remember he likely wouldn't be caught dead watching anything like those. Not to mention the existence of subtitles.

[Jeneral2885]

31. I thought

they fire blanks in action movies and even stun personnel are not nine year olds or are well trained if they have to fire real live bullets or handle explosives.

Isn't watching TV safer? Or even X Box?

[underpants]

33. Stunt baby

SNL did a skit were Aykroyd as the Director of a movie would yell, "CUT! okay bring in the stunt baby" and then all kinds if terrible things would happen to what was clearly a doll

Safer yeah but not as much fun .... As watching your darling precious little girl get a confirmed kill

[indie9197]

39. A little off topic but did you know blanks can kill?

A lot of people dont so that is why I am saying this. A kid in Utah was killed a fee years ago during the high school play "Oklahoma" when he shot himself in the head. The gases coming out of the barrel at close range can do a lot of damage, evidently.

[Jeneral2885]

41. then

why are so many movie actors alive?

[indie9197]

43. Because they did not put a blank-firing pistol to their head or vital organs and pull the trigger.

I thought it would be useful info, guess not.

[LibertyLover]

46. Several actors have died from blanks

Jon-Erik Hexum and Brandon Lee being the 2 most famous. Another actor, Antonio Velasco, died when the gun he was supposed to be shot with by another actor turned out to have been loaded with live ammo.

[intaglio]

54. But I bet he is not a patch on the real Ghenghiz Cohen

Otherwise known as Cohen the Barbarian, leader of the Silver Horde

[underpants]

55. Thanks

My world just got a little bigger today.

[underpants]

8. Well they could just be practicing to protect themselves

Against the hordes of the Zombie Apocalypse or the horde of illegal children crossing the border (better firing angle kid-to-kid I would think) or ..... Uh .... any other horde(s) that are out there, real or imagined.

[conservaphobe]

11. It's sad that even common sense issues have become so controversial. nt

[KittyWampus]

14. Go to an amusement park or carnival and rides have size restrictions. Shooting a lethal weapon?

Meh, who cares.

[phantom power]

15. Anybody advertising "Desert Storm atmosphere" as family entertainment is detached from reality

[Johonny]

34. Given that he had customers you can assume he understood economic reality all to well

People will sell people whatever crap they want to buy if the laws allow it.

[phantom power]

16. If the NRA gave a hammered shit about gun safety they would denounce everything about that business

and what happened there.

[napkinz]

19. ...

[CreekDog]

20. The reason the NRA won't is that they represent gun manufacturers, not just owners

you can sell only so many guns for protection.

you can sell more guns if they are marketed for entertainment.

thus, their silence.

[Lurks Often]

24. Fully automatic firearms are a closed market

No civilian can buy a fully automatic weapon if it was manufactured after 1986. It has to have been made before 1986 for it to be transferable, which requires a $200 Federal tax stamp, a background check by the ATF and for an UZI about $12,000 dollars.

And yes the instructor was negligent for giving an fully automatic UZI to a 9 year old.

[CreekDog]

36. But it's not the point which weapons can be sold and which cannot

the point was why the NRA is unwilling to discourage guns as toys in general.

and because a lot of guns are sold or used, essentially, as toys, the manufacturers don't really care, but they don't want to give up that source of sales.

[Lurks Often]

40. I find it unlikely we're going to agree

since your views on firearms (if I remember your other posts on this subject correctly) are bias toward the reduction and even the elimination of them from the general public. Equally I am bias toward accepting any further restrictions.

Having said that, the NRA and every gun owner I know do not view guns as toys but something that can be enjoyed recreationally with reasonable caution and attention to safety. With that in mind, there are companies that market firearms specifically sized for the youth market since most of the normal firearms are too big, heavy and/or powerful for not only children, but some smaller statured men and women. The NRA is the only organization that I am aware of that came up with a safety program strictly for children, the Eddie Eagle program, which essentially states Stop, Don't Touch, Go Find An Adult.

If you look around your home, there are any number of things that could cause you injury or even death if misused or just careless.

As an aside, most people seen the NRA as a monolithic entity whose main focus is political, certainly that is the part that gets the most attention. In actuality, a very large part of the NRA is primarily a training organization, whose instructors tend to try to remain apolitical when teaching.

[Ron Green]

44. It seems to me the NRA's agenda is a fear-based one

to support those who make and sell firearms. Period.

[Lurks Often]

45. A simplistic and biased viewpoint

fueled by poor or intentionally slanted reporting by the media. Many of the firearms sold every day have little or no practical use for self-defense, but are used for hunting, competitive shooting and recreational shooting

[LanternWaste]

53. And lobbying congress to prevent the CDC from researching firearm related health issues.

" In actuality, a very large part of the NRA is primarily a training organization..."

And lobbying congress to prevent the CDC from researching firearm related health issues.

[Lurks Often]

61. That would be the political wing of the NRA

that does the lobbying

[Johonny]

35. +1

[Aristus]

29. I'll give those fuckheads a real 'Desert Storm' experience.

First, they can eat MRE's at every meal for a month, with the attendant constipation.

Pursuant to that, they can use a shovel and a pickax to carve out a squat-latrine from the exceptionally hard subsurface desert rock lying a few inches below the sand. Have fun with that. And with the straining to be able to take a dump at all. (See constipation above.)

Speaking of sand, I'll make sure they get it everywhere on their bodies, in their clothes, their eyes, their crotches, and every precision part of whatever vehicle they drove to get there. Not to mention in, over and on those precious guns they love so much, but have a hard time cleaning properly without someone ending up dead. They'll have to clean their weapons constantly and with as little oil as possible, to avoid attracting the corrosive sand.

I'll ensure they swelter during the day, and freeze at night.

Oh, and for extra fun, I'll drop a Scud missile on them. You know, to keep them on their toes. The thing about their precious firearms: they can't defend against a Scud missile attack.

Limp-dick wanna-bees...

[tazkcmo]

38. Don't forget the illness

After coming home they can watch their bodies deteriorate and waste away while the VA tells them it's due to their sedentary life style and totally unrelated to the vaccine cocktail the shove in your body before deployment.

[marions ghost]

49. Reality meets the fantasy

thanks for your words.

[cwydro]

30. I think I was that age too.

I learned on a 22.

pretty good with it even now

[Call Me Wesley]

32. Think about the child militia!

Don't give guns to kids. Period. There will be once the second you miss looking. And yes, I had a .22 when I was a kid.

And if anyone know objects and thinks that if 'technicalities, like safety and bruhaha' will prevent such an incident (just an individual, single incident, can't blame anyone for it, anyway, like playing with toy trains, accidents can happen anywhere,) then let me show you this gem (don't ask my why it was made golden and silver later, I have no idea: )



That thing traveled through my leg. Obviously, it was a single accident. I was ten years old, and somehow, the gun enthusiast I was with then, failed to notice the live round. Well, shit happens. Wasn't the guns fault. Because they're obviously so safe in the right hands. On the other hand, speaking of hands, it's a bit frightening that everyone of those thinks that they do have the right hands to handle it. If you own guns, just never feel safe. Ever. Why this isn't taught as a basic lesson escapes me. Who hasn't cut her/himself with a knife yet? What's the difference? There's none. Bumped into something with the car, bike, bicycle? Tripped on your own feet? See, you're not safe, and you'll never be. Sometimes it's simple.

I'm only speak out of experience and a two week stay in a hospital with one and a half month having a full leg cast - the old way. So I don't really know what I'm talking about. But the scar is cool ...

IBTL.

[cwydro]

37. Agreed. No way

should a child have a machine gun.

no way, no how

[Blue_Tires]

42. Why aren't the parents involved arrested?

Especially when just six weeks ago this happened?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025242014

[marions ghost]

57. GOOD point

Not OK to let her go to the park. But fine to let your kid shoot an uzi....

We need laws. Until parents are prosecuted for this, NOTHING will change.

It's long overdue.

[Eleanors38]

47. Those Waikiki & Vegas ranges: Any deaths? nt

[CreekDog]

50. what are you going on about that it took you two days to come up with?

to the guy who named his account to honor Eleanor Roosevelt's gun.

that's how relevant whatever you say is.

[Eleanors38]

58. I take it there were no deaths? Thank you. nt

[CreekDog]

59. No, there was a death, or maybe you missed the news in the OP

where a man was killed.

[Eleanors38]

60. One (1).

[CreekDog]

63. Right, no big deal if it's only one death

You really brighten DU with your overwhelming humanity.

[NYC_SKP]

64. OT, I meant to tell you that the beach place is free this weekend if you want to come over.

It's small but nice, if you have a sleeping bag or not, as long as you aren't allergic to terriers or 270 degree ocean views.

Also, the surf is really loud, so loud that a disclaimer is included whenever I rent it out.

If you're lucky, we'll see whales and on a typical day there are dolphins.

Offer good for a limited time only, I'm probably out of here on Monday.

Sorry that I forgot to mention it in another thread about water conservation.

I'm wondering if our pool is losing a lot of water, and if I should advocate for a pool cover and/or solar thermal heating.

Anyway, lemme know if you are interested.

[Eleanors38]

65. You are so droll & dreary with your personal attacks.

But, it's all you got.

[callous taoboy]

51. I drove limo for a bachelorette party recently- Get this:

I overheard the bride-to-be tell her girls that they will be releasing doves at the wedding, and then her father and brothers will shoot them down.

[marions ghost]

52. What

tell me this is The Onion.... I'm afraid it may not be....if nothing more are they too stupid to realize that is NOT an auspicious omen for a wedding?

What is WRONG with this country?

[callous taoboy]

56. I know, right? Not the Onion. I heard it, couldn't believe it.

Her friends thought it entirely reasonable.