You have heard, of course, about the 9-year-old girl who lost control of a fully automatic Uzi while shooting at an Arizona shooting range and killed her 39-year-old instructor.
I read The New York Times’ online story about it tonight and saw that it had already drawn more than 260 comments.
The Times runs about 25 comments per segment before you have to hit “read more” to get the next 25 or so.
I took the following comments just from the first page.
There’s no point whatsoever in me voicing an opinion or making an observation. Just listen to the commenters:
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Dr. Marvin Denburg, Coralville, IA
It’s illegal for a child to buy cigarettes and alcohol but not illegal for a child to use an automatic weapon. Have we lost our sanity?
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Texan, San Antonio
The best people now to publicly advocate for weapon safety are the 9 year-old, her parents, and the family of the dead instructor. They need to get busy advocating and show the courage this situation needs. I’ll defend any person with the courage to admit a deadly error and a desire to persuade an audience with authority and humility. When they get in front of a camera and say that the deadliest weapons never belong in a child’s hands, the viewers will believe them and later admire them.
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Geoff, New York
If today was a typical day, almost 100 people died in automobile accidents in the United States. This unfortunate incident (the shooting death) is “news,” which means it is uncommon, perhaps unique. Every adult involved was there of their own volition. Even though the event reeks of irresponsibility and stupidity, it is difficult for me to get too outraged about it. There is simply too much stupidity around for me or anybody else to prevent.
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Doug Terry, Maryland
Obviously, small children should not be handling and firing high-powered weapons. There is no good purpose to it. When (people are) older, the ability to handle a weapon overall is not a bad thing, just as being able to change a flat tire or put oil in a car could be part of one’s basic skills. There are plenty of exotic “adventures” that parents introduce their children to these days, and it seems to have gotten way out of hand. We need to come down to earth.
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Mike Holloway, MA
These things are made for one purpose only: slaughtering people. Why not take your child to play with lethal drugs or gas? All the insane, silly retorts of the gun nuts serve one purpose only: to keep them from having to think and accept responsibility for all the blood.
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Aymeri, Vancouver
Absolutely appalling, to say the least. Such parents shouldn’t be entrusted with rearing children. So learning to fire a gun is, well, just another game, is it? And we wonder why so many vulnerable youth, reared on a diet of violence in many guises (e.g., video games & all those ever present blockbuster, action-filled, brainless films – let alone lax gun access regulations) all too often turn to shooting.
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Patricia Powell, Portland
The loss of life by accident or violence is always a tragedy. While many would be inclined to put this into the “pro-gun vs. anti-gun” category, I would vote for a larger lens. Placing a gun in the hands of a young, untrained child is placing an unconscionable amount of responsibility, whether stated or implied. It is no different than letting a 9-year-old drive a car without an adult’s hand on the wheel. To argue, “Who is at fault?” is superfluous. In the end, the child is the victim of the carelessness of all the participating adults. Sadly it is she, and she alone, who will bear the lifelong emotional and mental scars.
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Clyde Wynant, Pittsburgh
When they write the obit on American “culture,” this should be in the footnotes. I can say with some certainty that the gun nuts amongst us will insist that this was just a “tragic accident” and that “____ percent” of kids with Uzis cause no harm at all! They will tell us it’s safer than driving to the grocery store or going to the beach. What they are unwilling to say is that a military weapon is not a toy, nor should young children be exposed to them.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
An idiot allowed a child to handle a weapon she clearly was not capable of using safely. No Constitutional regulation could have prevented such stupidity and there is no reason why rational citizens should be penalized owing to the stupidity of one person. Were the idiot still alive I suspect there are laws which could be used to punsih him for his stupidity, but as it is, he provided his own punishment.
Guns are not toys, if you cannot handle one safely, or are unable to handle conflict calmly and rationally you should not have one. People who complained about being nervous during the shooting portion of their CCH training were told flat out that they probably should not own a weapon given that any situation justifying the use of a firearm would be far more stressful than trying to poke holes in a target.
Maybe you have seen this before. It would be funny if it weren’t soooo true. If only there was a way to bring him back! It would restore hope if we could…
OBITUARY: THE SAD PASSING OF COMMON SENSE
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned, but overbearing, regulations were set in place.
Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, teenagers suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they had themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer paracetamol, sun lotion or plaster to a pupil, but could not inform the parents when a pupil became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home, but the burglar could sue you for assault because you protected yourself and your own.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion, his daughter, Responsibility and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I’m A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realised that he was gone.
If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
Author Unknown