Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Guns must be taught safely

One day, as part of an assignment for one of my photography classes, I found myself playing assistant to another student photographer. The girl she had brought in to model for her was a friend she had known in high school. I don’t remember much about her, except that she was dressed in black, with really cool spiky ankle boots. 

They were both much younger than me, so I paid little attention to their personal conversation, until I heard the model make mention of owning guns. Being a Marine Corps veteran, among other things, my ears perked up instantly.

“What do you have?” I inquired.

With the perfect affect of an indifferent child, she answered, “Oh, a pistol and a rifle.”

I knew two things instantly. 1. She was trying to make herself sound cool, mysterious and tough. 2. Though she may very well own the weapons in question, she had never shot either one, and they were probably locked up in her father’s gun cabinet somewhere with the promise of, “Someday when you want them, these are yours.”

How do I know this? Simple. If you have children, you don’t blankly tell someone who asks about them, “Oh, kids? Yeah, I have a few of those,” and then change the subject. No way. You start off more like, “Kids? I have three! Two boys and a girl, and let me tell you….” At which point you proceed to tell the listener everything in the world they never wanted to know about your kids. 

Guns are the same way. You don’t tell someone, “Oh, yeah, I have a pistol. It’s whatever.” You start off with, “I have a Glock 23,” and then proceed to make sure that they understand that “23” is the model number, not the caliber, and that it has a 13 round clip and weighs 31.06 oz. when loaded and continue to tell the listener everything they never wanted to know about your gun, because your gun is exactly like one of your children.

So, if you hadn’t already figured it out, I own a gun. More specifically, I own the aforementioned Glock 23. The Glock 23 is a .40 caliber compact pistol. I know the length of my barrel, I know its weight, I know its serial number. My handgun has a hell of a kick. After shooting just a few clips, my hands are sore and I have occasionally wondered why I didn’t just buy a nine. My point is, I know my weapon. 

I’m telling you all of this to make another, more important point. No one, and I mean no one – man, woman or child – should ever shoot a weapon that he or she is not intimately familiar with. And no one, and I mean no one, should ever shoot a weapon that is too much for him or her to handle. I bring this up, of course, because of the 9-year-old girl who shot her instructor in the head with an Uzi in Arizona. 

Weapons instructors have a responsibility to their charges. As an instructor, it was Charles Vacca’s job to make sure that any weapon he handed a 9-year-old child would be something she could handle. Vacca failed in that responsibility, and it cost him his life. It could have been worse. Back in 2008, 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj killed himself with the same gun, a 9mm Mini Uzi, when he couldn’t handle the recoil.

This incident has sparked the usual mass hysteria that occurs when a child is involved in any life-threatening incident. I’m not going to make an argument here that children shouldn’t shoot. On the contrary, I believe that it teaches them a valuable discipline. There are children who were bagging bears at the same ages as the aforementioned kids. Fern Spaulding-Rivers was shooting big bore weapons by the age of 9, and bagged a trophy Alaskan Brown Bear at the same age in 2006. Closer to home, 8-year-old Sierra Stiles downed the first bear of the season in western Maryland in 2005. 

So what’s the difference?

First of all, no single shot weapon, regardless of its kick, behaves the same way as an automatic weapon does. Machine guns don’t just kick, they move – continuously – until the shooter lets go of the trigger. Only someone with sufficient upper body strength and control can handle that kind of action. 

Second, the caliber of the weapon was too big for an inexperienced child to begin with. Children should start off with a single shot .22 caliber rifle. Though Fern Spaulding-Rivers was shooting big bore weapons at an early age, she was able to do so with the use of a custom designed vest made especially for her that could withstand the recoil from the bigger weapons she was using. The girl in Arizona who shot Charles Vacca had no such protective gear and had never shot an automatic weapon before. There was absolutely no excuse for Vacca to have handed her that weapon in the first place. 

Third, there seems to be a tendency from both instructors and parents to be more concerned about the coolness factor of the children having shot an automatic weapon than with the lives of the people present. Bizilj’s father was warned a number of times that the weapon could be too much for the boy to handle, yet he insisted that his son shoot it anyway.

The incident in Arizona was tragic, for certain, but it was not the fault of a child who simply wanted to shoot. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of her instructor, who should have known better, and who ultimately had the last say in what and whether she shot. Children should have the right to shoot if they choose to do so, but more importantly, they have the right to be taught by professionals who will never forget that their first responsibility is to their charge’s safety. 

 
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