Guns and Gear

Shooting Range Sued After 9 Year Old Kills Instructor With An Uzi

REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian

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Kevin Daley Supreme Court correspondent
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The family of a shooting range instructor killed by a 9-year-old girl with an Uzi has brought a wrongful death claim against the range.

The little girl killed instructor Charles Vacca in August of 204 as he was teaching her how to hold and fire the weapon at the Last Stop shooting range in White Hills, Arizona. She let off a quick burst following his instruction, and the recoil jerked the firearm in his direction. He was hit by one of the recoil rounds and later died in the hospital.

The family “prayed day and night that [Vacca] would survive his injury, and they continue to pray for his family during this terribly difficult time,” the attorney for the little girl’s family said.

Vacca’s family has filed a suit that alleges the operators of the range were negligent in allowing the child to handle and fire a deadly weapon. The plaintiffs hope to recover damages for Vacca’s mother, widow, and three children as well as his ex-wife.

The Uzi is a popular firearm in the Israeli Defense Forces and was the standard submachine gun of the U.S. Secret Service for nearly three decades.

Arizona prosecutors investigated the incident, but declined to pursue a criminal case against the range owners, or the girl’s family after the Las Vegas coroner ruled the killing accidental. The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health found that the facility was in full compliance with all state regulations, but recommended restricting weapons selection and adding a full-time safety officer to the staff.

“I hope that this will teach them a lesson,” Vacca’s daughter Elizabeth Vacca told local press. “I think someone really needs to learn something from what happened in this situation. Someone needs to take accountability.”

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