On Oct 29, 3:53*pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Pete C. wrote:
Ignoramus32330 wrote:
On 2008-10-29, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
Even though I've been a NRA member longer than I can remember, there's
no way I'd let my eight year old grandson fire a fully automatic weapon
"for fun".
It's just plain nuts....And in the state I live in too.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...Oxj2wD9439PRO0
A very stupid way to die.
I would let my 7 year old fire a rifle with only one round in it.
Though, as a matter of fact I know that he would not enjoy it due to
noise and recoil.
I was discussing this incident with a friend the other day and we made a
few observations.
The first observation was that this was an Uzzi, a relatively heavy 9mm
SMG so the idea that the recoil caused it to fly back is questionable.
I'm not up on the differences, but one news article I read said that it
was a "Mini-Uzi", considerably smaller than the standard ones. So, maybe
it wasn't as heavy as you thought.
Second is that the instructor should have had the kid try firing a few
shots in semi-auto mode first to see if he could handle it, a mode where
the gun would not keep firing if the kid panicked and kept squeezing the
trigger.
The third observation is that the instructor should have had his hand on
the gun when the kid first tried firing it in full auto mode.
The fourth observation was that at a shoot like this the younger kids
should be limited to .22 caliber where recoil isn't going to be an
issue. I believe .22 conversion kits are available for many SMGs so they
could fire the same guns with a more tame load.
The fifth observation is that this incident occurred in Massachusetts,
one of the most anti-gun states.
Yes, and in 1994 Massachusetts passed laws against the manufacture,
sale, and use of weapons like Uzis by citizens, but they grandfathered
in ones already owned by gun clubs and permitted their use by club
members. So, that was the loophole which led to the kid's death.
Particularly ironic is the fact that the dead kid's father is a doctor
in charge of the emergency medical unit at a hospital.
I've often argued with anti gun advocate aquaintances that while the
number of guns in US households greatly exceeds the number of backyard
swimming pools the annual number of accidental childhood deaths by
firearms is miniscule compared to the number of swimming pool drownings.
That said, I still believe someone needs to be held responsible for that
poor kid's death. Just my .02.
Jeff
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Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
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According to this article the weapon was a “micro Uzi” SMG:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...at_g un_show/
According to this site it is a 9 mm 3.3 lb gun with an open bolt
blowback recoil design:
http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg17-e.htm
Open-bolt blowback recoil guns presumably compromise accuracy (and
control):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzi_submachine_gun