Something pretty
stupid, and horribly tragic, has just happened in northwestern Arizona, in a location
about twenty-five miles south of Las Vegas.
This week an American family on vacation stopped at a border joint
called "The Last Stop" to shoot guns, and maybe to eat at the
attached fast food business called "Bullets and Burgers." With them was their 9-year-old daughter, a
petite little girl in pink shorts.
Someone decided this child should try her hand at the 9 mm Uzi machine
gun. In a video, we see her only from
the rear, in bright orange ear protectors, a dark braid cascading down her slender
back, holding the weapon next to Charles Vacca, 39, an Italian-American
"instructor" at this fast food-shooting range in the desert. He has to bend over to show her how to use
the automatic weapon. She's just a
kid. Her parents are filming the action
with their cell phones. She probably assumes
that the grown-ups know what they're doing, letting her fire this thing. Adults are supposed to know what's right;
basically, they're supposed to protect kids like her. A veteran of America's desert wars, Vacca,
whose Italian surname used to mean "cow" but today can also mean
"loose woman," was wearing a regulation crewcut and Army
fatigues. He must have looked like a
soldier to the little girl, and to her parents, like a real professional. The child, whose name is not known, probably
felt the pressure. After all, she's
still in grade school. The alley of the
shooting range itself looked to be well-fortified. At its far end, a typical target, the black outline
of a standing man, was surrounded by high earthern walls, clearly to prevent
stray bullets from flying. In sixteen years
of activity, this 
shooting range had never had an accident before. "Not even a scratch," said one of
Vacca's colleagues. First Vacca let the
child fire the Uzi in the single shot mode, as if it were a normal rifle. He praised her when the bullet hit close to
the target. Then he decided to let her
try it in machine gun mode, to have fun "playing" with an
Israeli-made weapon of war, a thing obviously designed to kill enemy fighters
in rapid succession, allowing no time for careful aiming, as at a squirrel in a
tree or a rabbit in a field. It never
occurred to him that she might not be able, physically or mentally, to handle
the strong upward yank of the Uzi after each bullet fired. It takes strength and experience to get the
hang of an automatic weapon. Why would
anybody, especially the little girl's parents, enjoy seeing this innocent child
fire a machine gun? Is that the new
cute? When I was nine, my parents would no
sooner have placed a gun in my hands than they would a viper. Our family vacations were about being in
nature. Guns never figured in, thank
God. And here's this little girl, likely
en route to or from Las Vegas, sometimes called Sin City, in the state of
Nevada, the desert flats of which served for years as the world's biggest and
scariest shooting range, the place where the military routinely set off nuclear
bombs. It all sort of figures. As Jesus said to a man who drew a sword in
His defense the night He was arrested, "Return the sword to its place, for all of those who take up swords will
die by swords." Poor Vacca, he
didn't stand a chance. He was so used to
handling an Uzi, so accustomed to the idea of weapons of war, so out of touch
with their purpose--to kill humans--that when he put the Uzi on automatic and that
little girl lost control of the damned thing and it tilted upwards and a bullet
struck him in the head at 
pointblank range, he didn't even know what hit
him. "The guy just dropped," a
witness said. Fortunately, the gun
emptied without hitting anyone else, and now the little girl has to live with
what she felt and saw that day. Vacca
died in the hospital that same night. I
hope and pray that little girl grows up to realize it wasn't her fault, that
she too was a victim. She and Vacca and
everybody else. Her parents? I hope they find their way back to reality. UN'AMERICANA A VENEZIA
shooting range had never had an accident before. "Not even a scratch," said one of
Vacca's colleagues. First Vacca let the
child fire the Uzi in the single shot mode, as if it were a normal rifle. He praised her when the bullet hit close to
the target. Then he decided to let her
try it in machine gun mode, to have fun "playing" with an
Israeli-made weapon of war, a thing obviously designed to kill enemy fighters
in rapid succession, allowing no time for careful aiming, as at a squirrel in a
tree or a rabbit in a field. It never
occurred to him that she might not be able, physically or mentally, to handle
the strong upward yank of the Uzi after each bullet fired. It takes strength and experience to get the
hang of an automatic weapon. Why would
anybody, especially the little girl's parents, enjoy seeing this innocent child
fire a machine gun? Is that the new
cute? When I was nine, my parents would no
sooner have placed a gun in my hands than they would a viper. Our family vacations were about being in
nature. Guns never figured in, thank
God. And here's this little girl, likely
en route to or from Las Vegas, sometimes called Sin City, in the state of
Nevada, the desert flats of which served for years as the world's biggest and
scariest shooting range, the place where the military routinely set off nuclear
bombs. It all sort of figures. As Jesus said to a man who drew a sword in
His defense the night He was arrested, "Return the sword to its place, for all of those who take up swords will
die by swords." Poor Vacca, he
didn't stand a chance. He was so used to
handling an Uzi, so accustomed to the idea of weapons of war, so out of touch
with their purpose--to kill humans--that when he put the Uzi on automatic and that
little girl lost control of the damned thing and it tilted upwards and a bullet
struck him in the head at pointblank range, he didn't even know what hit
him. "The guy just dropped," a
witness said. Fortunately, the gun
emptied without hitting anyone else, and now the little girl has to live with
what she felt and saw that day. Vacca
died in the hospital that same night. I
hope and pray that little girl grows up to realize it wasn't her fault, that
she too was a victim. She and Vacca and
everybody else. Her parents? I hope they find their way back to reality. UN'AMERICANA A VENEZIA
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