Linda Hall: Gun culture taken to extreme

Still from a cell phone video showing a 9 year old girl beign taught to shoot and UZI machine gun by instructor Charles Vacca. Photo / Supplied

I can't for the life of me understand why any parent would let their 9-year-old child touch, let alone fire, a sub-machine gun.

After the tragic incident in Arizona last Monday when a gun instructor was shot dead while standing next to a little girl who lost control of the gun she was using, I asked myself why this child was even firing a gun.

Not just any gun, mind, a Uzi sub-machine gun described in one news story I read as "a notoriously difficult and deadly weapon".

I also read that it is "not the first accidental shooting by a child using an Uzi.

"An 8-year-old boy died after shooting himself in the head at a gun expo near Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2008. Christopher Bizilj was firing at pumpkins when the Uzi kicked back."

These guns are not made for children's hands.

Why would you put your child in that position? I don't believe for a minute that children of that age are taught to fire weapons to protect themselves.

Teach the child self-defence, some kind of martial arts, boxing or how to yell and scream if they think they are in danger.

I'm sure the parents of the Arizona girl are devastated and we can only imagine the long-term effects this will have on the child.

Some reports said the instructor, Charles Vacca, 39, who lost his life, should have been standing behind the girl with his hands on the gun.

No doubt there will be an inquiry into the shooting but the fact remains that a man is dead and a little girl is traumatised because she was allowed to handle a gun way too powerful for her.

If she really wanted to have a go with a "gun", take her to a fair or gala where they have those guns that fire blanks at moving metal ducks.

Arizona has a strong pro-gun culture. There are plenty of shooting ranges and the operator of the one where the fatally took place said "allowing children 8 and older to fire guns under adult supervision and the watchful eye of an instructor is standard practice in the industry". However. they were going to review it. What's the bet nothing changes?

He also made this incredible statement: "We never even issued a Band-Aid."

A Band-Aid? Any accident involving a gun would need more than a Band-Aid.

Thank goodness New Zealand has strict rules and regulations surrounding gun ownership and safety.

There are thousands of men and women in New Zealand who shoot for sport and recreation. No doubt some of them take their older children along with them. Good on them.

Once they are old enough and if they are going to be using, or with people using firearms they need to be taught how to handle them safely and respect them.

That is sensible - what happened at the Arizona firing range was not.

Children are good at finding trouble and they certainly don't need adults putting it in their hands.

• Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.