EJ MONTINI

Why do we allow a child to handle an Uzi?

EJ Montini
The Republic | azcentral.com
Instructor Charles Vacca, 39, was standing next to the girl Aug. 25, 2014, at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, about 25 miles south of Las Vegas, when she squeezed the trigger.

A tragedy is always a tragedy first. And what happened in northern Arizona Monday was a horrible tragedy.

A nine-year-old girl was at a shooting range with her parents. She was receiving instruction in how to use an automatic Uzi. According to investigators when the little girl pulled the trigger the recoil caused the gun to fly over her head. A bullet struck her 39-year-old instructor, Charles Vacca, in the head. He was killed.

The place this happened is called Arizona Last Stop. It's located on Hwy 93 in White Hills, near the Nevada border. The name of the outdoor shooting range (and restaurant) is Bullets and Burgers Adventure. It offers patrons the opportunity to fire a variety of automatic and "specialty" weapons.

What happened there Monday was awful for the family of Vacca and awful as well for the young shooter and her family. But it leaves us with three important questions:

Why would a shooting range allow a kid to handle an automatic weapon? Why would a parent? And, most importantly, why would a state?

I know what some of you are saying.

Perhaps because I've already heard from some of you.

On Tuesday afternoon, not long after the news of the shooting went public a man left a message on my voicemail saying, "Come on, Montini. What's taking you so long? Here's yet another opportunity for you to spread your anti-gun hatred. It's another chance for you to try to rob us of our Second Amendment Rights. And even better – because that's how (expletives) like you are – you can use the death of a man and the trauma of a child to spew your (expletive). Don't disappoint me.'"

Okay, I won't.

Not because anything the caller said was true, but because I've heard it all before.

For some people, the way to cut off any discussion of common sense gun control is to demean anyone who wants to bring up the topic.

It happened last year after the shooting and stabbing attack in Santa Barbara. It happened after the massacre in Tucson that killed six and wounded 13, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It happened after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adult staff members dead.

It happens with gun violence both intentional and accidental.

A study by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown said 100 children are killed a year in preventable firearms accidents. In Arizona in 2012, more than 30 children were killed by firearms according to the 2013 Arizona Child Fatality Review.

It shouldn't happen. Nor should kids be in the dangerous position of handling automatic weapons.

The people who want to cut off the conversation say we should not talk about firearms regulation of any sort during the emotional days immediately after a tragedy.

When then? We move from tragedy to tragedy, issue to issue, at the speed of Twitter. A delayed discussion means no discussion.

In the meantime, a little girl has to live with the memory of having killed a man.

We should ask those uncomfortable questions now. Before anything like this happens again. Arizona law allows a minor to possess a weapon if accompanied by a parent, guardian or an instructor. But this type of weapon?

It's time we asked ourselves:

Why would a shooting range allow a kid to handle an automatic weapon? Why would a parent? And, most importantly, why would a state?