Photograph of Charles Vacca helping a 9-year-old point an Uzi machine gun downrange.

 


Photograph of Charles Vacca helping a 9-year-old point an Uzi machine gun downrange. She'd just fired a single shot and Charles then asked her to go fully automatic and when she did, the gun recoiled and a stray bullet hit him in the head. He died as a result.

Vacca's family, including his ex-wife, Anamarie Vacca, have said they harbor no ill will toward the girl who accidentally killed Charles Vacca. Anamarie Vacca also said that her children want to write a letter to the girl, "knowing their family has to grieve through the same process."

In an interview aired on The Today Show on August 29, Vacca's daughter Ashley said that her father's death was a "tragic accident" and expressed her sympathy for the girl and her family. On September 12, Vacca's four children wrote a letter to the girl, in which they said that "Our dad would want you to know that you should move forward with your life."

The incident took place at the Arizona Last Stop Gun Range, also known as “Bullets and Burgers”, in White Hills, Arizona. Charles Vacca had been working there for about 18 months. The shooting range had a minimum age requirement of eight years old for firing a weapon, provided that the child was supervised by a parent. It was also legal for Arizona Last Stop to own the fully automatic Uzi because it was manufactured and purchased prior to the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986 and added to the National Firearms Act machine gun registry where all fully automatic civilian owned firearms are registered.

The family of the girl had traveled from their Las Vegas hotel to the Last Stop at approximately 9:45 AM. They first took a ride on a monster truck before arriving at the gun range. The girl’s father was the first to shoot, followed by the girl herself. The girl’s mother videotaped her daughter trying out the Uzi, and said she watched as the gun recoiled and her daughter lost control of it. The girl reportedly said the Uzi was “too much” for her after she fired the weapon and was unable to control the muzzle rise, causing the barrel to be directed at Vacca.

WATCH MOMENTS BEFORE THE HORROR 


The shooting ignited a discussion regarding whether children should be legally allowed to handle fully automatic weapons such as Uzis. The owner of Last Stop, Sam Scarmardo, said it was considered pretty standard to allow children onto the range, and that he was reconsidering this policy in light of the accident. Writing for National Review Online, Robert B. Young wrote that only one other incident had occurred in which a child killed someone with an automatic weapon.

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