After consulting with several gun experts, CNN is reporting that almost all are in agreement that the little girl who accidentally shot an instructor with an Uzi was playing with the wrong kind of gun.
“Gun experts contacted by CNN on Wednesday said young children should be taught to shoot with single-shot firearms rather than submachine guns.”
Apparently, when parents take their children to “Bullets and Burgers” to eat hamburgers and play with guns, the kids should only be given “single-shot firearms” to play with. And the video CNN has of the incident bears that out. The little girl manages ok when the Israeli commando weapon she is holding is set to single-fire, and the problem only arises when the instructor flips the switch to fully automatic.
Greg Block, one of the experts consulted by CNN, says that giving the girl an Uzi was a mistake. "That's not a kid's gun,” he wisely intones.
Most experts agree that you don’t give your child an Uzi to play with. In fact, most agree it’s probably best not to give a child any type of submachine gun. Make sure you give your child a kid’s gun, and keep the submachine guns for you and your drinking buddies. Or for protection when you go shopping.
If your child really, really wants to play with a submachine gun, and you’re tired of hearing her whine about it, Steven Howard, another gun expert, has some advice. He tells us, according to CNN, “that the clip on the submachine gun should not hold more than three rounds during instruction.” But as long as you take that precaution, "It can be done under the right circumstances… There are some machine guns that I could have trained my 8-year-old on."
And to be fair, it’s only the second time in all of American history that a child has accidentally killed somebody while playing with an Uzi, and the other time the child only killed himself, and does that even count?
So, although this “industrial accident” - as Arizona authorities are calling it - was unfortunate, it’s not an excuse to overreact. It’s not like our society has gone off the rails because we actually debate the advisability of parents encouraging children to play with guns and there are businesses all over the country dedicated to satisfying this urge. It’s not like we’ve gone completely insane because we live in a society where the Target retail chain has to explain why they would discourage customers from bringing firearms into their stores, and only after "weighing" the "complex issue" and struggling with the "nuances of this debate." It’s not like we’ve all gone nuts just because it’s no longer a self-evident, common-sense conclusion that you shouldn't let your child play with a submachine gun, or that you shouldn't walk around in a discount retail store with a rifle slung over your shoulder.
Perhaps some people get a little carried away, but the Founding Fathers were very clear that everyone has the right to play with weapons designed for elite assault troops that fire 600 round per minute. It’s in the Constitution. Look it up. The Founding Fathers also believed men looked dignified in panty hose and little white wigs with a little black bow in back, and nobody freaks out when I go shopping dressed as they intended, even at Target.
And let’s be clear: most gun enthusiasts are just that, enthusiasts. They’re not all cops, soldiers, possum-eating swamp dwellers or Montana cattle ranchers. They’re not people who use guns as tools. They own guns because guns are cool, and you can buy all kinds of cool “tactical” accessories for your guns and carry them around pretending you’re fighting crime or single-handedly protecting your community from tyrants or communists or zombies or Negroes or whatever. For most Americans, guns are toys – deadly, child-killing, Constitutionally-protected toys.
And we were all taught to share our toys with other children.