A 9-year-old girl lost her life this week firing an Uzi. No, she wasn't the one who actually died -- she shot and killed her instructor -- but her life is over just the same. I cannot fathom the horror in her mind and heart and how she will replay this terrible moment over and over for the rest of her life. Therapy will cost more than college.
I'm definitely choosing to focus my sorrow on the girl, not the dead instructor. I'm not happy that he is dead by any means, but I'm not exactly sad either. It is more like I'm seeing Darwinism in rapid action. Put an Uzi in the hands of a little kid... what could go wrong?
Ultimately, while the instructor was an idiot, this entire episode is the fault of this girl's parents. They have destroyed her life. They ended the life of this man. And unless they are entirely miserable excuses for human beings, they have destroyed their own lives as well.
Sadly, this entire episode isn't surprising. And I won't be surprised when it happens yet again... and again... and again. We are a nation too stupid about guns to do anything sane.
Sad. Very sad.
28 August 2014
Additions 3 September 2014: From TPM comes two stories as follow-up. First, the little girl in question immediately after the shooting complained to her parents both that the gun was too powerful for her -- duh! -- and that she was in pain from firing it... so much so that the parents focused on their daughter and didn't even notice that she'd killed her instructor.
Second, it appears that the gun range can't locate the release forms signed by the girl's parents.
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