Tragedies and Jerking Knees

Something went horribly wrong at this past weekend's machine gun shoot at Westfield Sportsman's Club. During their annual full-auto shoot, which is open to the public for a fee, someone handed an 8 year old boy a micro-Uzi to shoot. He squeezed the trigger, the gun fired, and the sharp recoil and muzzle climb resulted in him shooting himself in the head. He died shortly thereafter.

It's a horrible, senseless tragedy, and one that was entirely preventable. The Range Officer should not have allowed the gun to be fired without supervision. The father should have been more attentive, and perhaps waited until after the first salvo to take pictures. There's a lot of "should haves", little facts. One thing is for certain, though. This being MA, there's no shortage of asshats ready to pounce on this tragedy to further restrict our freedoms.

State Representative Michael Costello, the Newburyport Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said yesterday that he plans to draft a bill that would ban anyone younger than age 21 from firing an automatic weapon.

"This isn't a knee-jerk reaction; it's a common sense reaction," he said. "We should take swift action to provide some reasonable restrictions on this type of unreasonable practice. It's almost indescribable that within a year of leaving a booster seat, an 8-year-old can be holding a submachine gun."

The surest sign that it IS a knee-jerk reaction is this jack-off's insistence on telling us it isn't. Look, Representative Costello, could you please tell us exactly how many other minors have been killed by machine-gun fire in the Commonwealth? Here's a hint: Close your eyes. What do you see? Yeah, nothing. None. This is a tragedy, to be certain; but is an aberration, a statistical outlier so far outside the norm that we'd be better served banning all hard candies for the handful of kids who choke to death each year.

It's going to be awfully interesting watching Representative Costello explain to the US Armed Forces how soldiers in MA won't be able to use machine guns until they turn 21, too...

Look, The Boy is almost 8. This hits home especially hard for me; Mrs. G. heard the news and it sent her over the edge - we've gone back and forth about me taking him to the gun club for the first time, and this incident has set me back at least a couple of years. I feel The Boy is ready; he shows excellent command of the Four Rules; he does well with his BB gun; under my tutelage he has proven himself ready.

But in the blink of an eye, all that means nothing. The news can't wait to stand over the body and demonize gun owners, claiming that this is what the NRA wants all along - Uzis in the hands of children. Regardless of how tightly Class III weaponry is regulated; regardless of the insane number of hoops one must jump through to get regular gun permit in MA, let alone a green card (Machine Gun license); one sensational accident and it all goes out the window.

How big of a jump is it to go from "No one under the age of 21 may fire a machine gun" to "No one under the age of 21 may fire a semi-automatic weapon" to "No one under the age of 21 may touch a firearm of any sort"? Not very. What does that do to the shooting sports? When we can't share our passion with our children; when we are prohibited by law from bringing our sons to the gun club for an afternoon of target shooting; when there are no more Junior teams... All because of a tragedy less common than drowning in a five gallon bucket?

Look, I think handing an 8 year old a fully automatic weapon is insane. I know that age group well, and in general they don't have the physical dexterity nor the maturity to handle something that serious. Hell, I'm a full-grown man and I'd be a little nervous about shooting a Micro Uzi - they've got an insane rate of fire and are very light. I've shot a fully automatic Glock pistol before, but that had a shoulder stock on it for controllability. Whether the father knew how difficult it was to handle or not is immaterial - if he knew, shame on him for letting the kid fire unsupervised. If he didn't know, shame on him for not finding out before letting his son take the firearm.

But passing a law to prohibit this? Senseless. It does absolutely NOTHING other than pave the way for future infringements on our Second Amendment rights. Nothing. It won't save lives, because the target of the bill is so infinitesimally small that you might as well ban gravity for all the good it's going to do. But the potential for this to act as a springboard for future restrictions is great. The return is negligible, the danger high.

Knee-jerk indeed.

That is all.