Why can’t we agree on guns?

“You’re only nine years old. We pray for you, and we wish you peace,” said the children of a deceased man to a young girl. Recently,  Charles Vacca was accidentally shot and killed by a nine-year-old girl. When I first heard this fact I wondered such a thing could be an accident, although considering her age and learning the details I was no longer surprised.

Vaca, a 39-year-old Uzi instructor in Arizona, was assisting a nine-year-old girl from New Jersey on how to use a submachine gun when the small girl lost control of the gun. The recoil of the gun eventually led to Vacca’s death a few days later.

Initially, I faulted the child’s  parents because I could not think of anyone that I know who would allow their child to do such a dangerous thing considering that it is the 21st century. Then, I began to wonder what kind of establishment would even allow such a young child to use a very powerful gun even with parental supervision.

Personally, I believe that the establishment is the most at fault, because of the way that they are running things. It’s understandable that many children do a lot more things nowadays with parental consent and supervision, considering that these adults are supposed to be responsible. Clearly, there are guardians who are irresponsible and don’t make the smartest decisions, but I would expect business owners and supervisors to be intelligent.

For a business to even allow children at such a young age to participate in these activities is an outrage. I am not against gun usage for legal purposes. Some in my family are hunters, and I can admit that with hunting being a legal sport as well as a tradition that runs in the family, I would not mind shooting when I am of age. Surely, my family members realize that with me being a young teenage girl, it would be a good idea to wait on learning how to shoot because of the amount of danger and power that a gun contains.

Nowadays, many people are lacking common sense and decision making skills, this leads to what people call accidents. I’m no psychic, but I believe that most people would not put their child behind a machine gun. I also believe that there are people who clearly would. Yes, these so-called adults who would voluntarily put their child behind a gun of any sort should be to blame for the outcome, but  a “business” that would even consider this being okay should be out of business before the parents go to jail for child endangerment.

Although Vacca made the decision to be a gun instructor, he did not make make the decision to be killed. An accident of this kind should never happen, and although people will still put their children behind a gun, the children should at least be teenagers. A business that allows young children to shoot machine guns should be out of business.