I would take a non-automatic gun any day over a automatic one. Non-automatic guns are much easier to use. Firing an automatic gun and hitting your target takes a skill most people do not have, nor should have.
Exactly. My hunter safety instructor had a marksman rating with fully auto, and it is very, very hard to get.
Tactically, automatic weapons aren't for killing people, anyway -- they're for spraying so many bullets into the air the other guy decides it's better to keep his head down.
The post below is why I decided to post in this thread as well -- I don't appreciate people lying about my position (I presume this is meant to be what I said).
Another thread in hot topics. Same subject. Synopsis:
- This would never have happened if they had picked a more age-appropriate weapon.
- The instructor was doing it wrong
- Clearly the instructor was an idiot, who should have followed the procedures I've decided make sense to follow when you teach a student in Grade 4 how to fire an assault weapon. You should tie the end of the weapon down when the child can't handle the Uzi because that would be a perfectly reasonable and sane thing to do.
You can't make this stuff up. It could be from saturday night live or the Onion or monty python.
The first two bullet points are accurate. The third is a distortion worthy of Rush Limbaugh.
The instructor made so many mistakes it's ridiculous, yes. I don't know if he was an idiot, or had been there too long that day, or what, but from viewing videos of other instructors with young shooters at that same rage, he wasn't even following their standard practices: he was standing on the wrong side of her, incorrectly in contact with her, and totally out of position to control the weapon if she lost control, as was almost inevitable.
There are no "procedures I've decided make sense", there are standard safety procedures that weren't followed. Besides the failings of the instructor already listed above, there are safety devices specifically made for keeping people safe when first-time students are attempting to handle automatic weapons -- but none were used.
The instructor -- who I doubt had any training or certification to be called that in the first place -- should have never handed her the weapon. Her body mass was too small to be able to handle it in the first place, and there is no way a kid that young is going to have the strength to control it anyway. Even if she had qualified on both those counts, the accident would have been likely anyway because the instructor gave not a single bit of guidance in how to control the firearm.
There is nothing "reasonable and sane" about this situation. And no, you don't "tie the end of the weapon down" -- that's sheer stupidity. It is not uncommon, though, to use a restraining loop for beginning students, to stop the muzzle swing before it goes too far.
The point of mentioning safety precautions which are available but were not used is to show that not only did the "instructor" foolishly allow the girl to even touch the weapon, but that his incompetence went far beyond that.
Finally, it's obvious that you can "make this stuff up", because you did.
