Authorities from Arizona revealed that a 9-year-old girl accidentally took the life of shooting instructor after an Uzi submachine gun that the girl had in her hands went out of control.
Instructor Charles Vacca, 39 years old, was teaching the girl to shoot with the Uzi at a shooting range located in White Hills, Arizona. In a video released by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, it can be seen that Vacca first let the girl shoot a bullet using the gun's single-shot mode.
Afterwards, Vacca put the gun on full automatic mode, which is the mode used by actors in action movies. However, the girl was not able to control the recoil of the powerful gun. The gun went out of control, leading to Vacca getting shot in the head.
Vacca was immediately brought to the local hospital through an airlift, but the instructor and Army veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq passed away that same night.
Gerry Hills, the founder of the group Arizonans for Gun Safety, said that the shooting range was reckless to put such a powerful weapon into the hands of a child. Hills also expressed the need for stricter regulations on the use of guns by children.
"We have better safety standards for who gets to ride a roller coaster at an amusement park," said Hills.
Referring to the parents of the girl, Hills said: "I just don't see any reason in the world why you would allow a 9-year-old to put her hands on an Uzi."
The parents, according to shooting range operator Sam Scarmardo, signed waivers on the rules of the shooting range and were within the vicinity during the incident. It was the parents that took the video of the gruesome accident.
However, according to Mohave County Attorney's Office chief deputy Jace Zack, it is Vacca's criminal negligence that led to the accident.
"The parents aren't culpable," said Zack. "They trusted the instructor to know what he was doing, and the girl could not possibly have comprehended the potential dangers involved."
The identities of the 9-year-old girl and her family have not been released to the public.
Federal law states that it is illegal for any person below 18 years old to own a handgun. However, there is a different law for ownership of long guns such as rifles and shotguns. In laws across 20 states, the minimum age has been set to between 14 years old and 21 years old, but in the rest of the 30 states, it is technically allowed for children to own a long gun.
A child can't walk into a gun store and buy a long gun. However, a parent of the child can.
"If dad wants to give his son a rifle or a shotgun on his 13th or 14th birthday, he's pretty much free to do that in most states," said John Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research director Daniel Webster.
