How could this happen!?

[wiggal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7694 560.stm

Are things a lot more relaxed in the U.S?
An 8 year old with a submachine gun?
What are your thoughts on this? Should the people who arranged the gun fair be prosecuted, or the father?
(I was speaking with a colleague of mine today and she said both should be) So just after your thoughts on this?

[weeal]

hiya
Only an idiot would put a submachine gun into the hands of an 8yr old - bloomin sad innit

[Eve]

Just unbelieveable and incredibly sad.

[wiggal]

My thoughts exactly!!

Like the article says, not long out of a booster seat, and allowed to shoot a weapon like that?

[tigerlily11]

Ahh the great American dream.
Wonderful isn't it.
You to can arm your 8 year old and watch him blow his brains out.
But thats ok cos Charlton Heston says it is. And any one from Hollywood is always right.
Makes you want to weep.

[Jafi]

Why would any parent let their 8 year old handle and fire a deadly weapon is beyond me.

I don't know enough about guns, but i would imagine a submachine gun would have quite a powerful recoil and would be pretty hard for even an adult to control, never mind a young child. It's really sad.

[Eve]

I was an RAF cadet and had to go through rigourous training including how to strip and clean a weapon and all kinds of info about it then be examined both practically and information wise by a qualified training instructor before I was allowed to get near a gun with live rounds.

Even then I could only shoot supervised on MOD property, lying down on a proper range, safety drill, ammo counted in and out etc...

To let a young child anywhere near a gun, let alone to play with it is just crazy.

[libertie]

"This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don't know why it happened," said Mr Bizilj"

Can I hazard a guess here and suggest that it happened because his unfortunate son had an ******* for a father!!!

[andy-hughes]

Child Protection in the U.S. - a good start would be to ask all fathers -

"Would you take your eight-year-old child to a weapons fair?

Anyone who answered 'Yes' would then have their child taken away from them and fostered.

That would save any arguments about actually letting a child pick up a loaded weapon, before he got as far as shooting anyone, including himself, with it.

[Bbbananas]

Utter madness.
It could only happen in the good ole U S of A.

[socket2008]

I always remember the case of when tennis players Anna Kournikova was 17 and seeing a 29 year old. There were several police cars parked outside the motel they were in to 'discourage' them from getting up to anything.

Strange how they actively allow kids to use guns though. Argue with an American over gun use or the Kournikova incident, guess which one they will argue is fine?