Range Etiquette

--Advertisement of girl firing Uzi 
in Blue Press (Nov. 2014 issue)

I have always known about man.
From the evidence, I believe his wisdom
must walk hand and hand with his idiocy
--Planet of the Apes (1968)

Remember when we used to play
Bang bang, I shot you down
Bang bang, you hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound 
--Bang, Bang, 
Nancy Sinatra

Mama used to tell me
Girl, you better load your gun up right
She said ya, ya gotta come out smokin'
Hit it with your best shot every time
 --I've Got My Finger on the Trigger,
Donna Summer
__________________

The above advert for Salute Targets appeared in the Nov. 2014 issue of the Dillon Blue Press catalog, p.5, a popular magazine selling reloading equipment. Pictured is a young girl firing a silenced 9 mm Uzi. It is unclear whether the weapon is full auto or semi, but Ranger asks, "What gives?"

Last month, a nine-year-old New Jersey girl accidentally shot and killed her instructor after her parents paid $200 for her to fire an Uzi sub machine gun at the appropriately named (for Mr. Vacca) The Last Chance firing range in Arizona (above):

"Cellphone video shows the pony-tailed youngster holding the Israeli military weapon, capable of firing up to 600 rounds a minute, before her instructor, 39-year-old military veteran Charles Vacca, switched the gun to automatic mode. As the girl pulled the trigger, she could not control the weapon’s powerful recoil and shot Vacca in the head" (When A 9-year-old Fires an Uzi).

What was the point in having this girl fire an Uzi on auto mode? Was this an empowerment exercise? Beyond the parent's foolishness, what was the range master and instructor thinking?

 

We don't know if the parents had answered the Salute Targets ad, but the magazine in which it appears is rife with conflict regarding the depiction of girls and women.

Each Blue Press cover features a siliconed-up model caressing a gun against various body parts (get it?) Almost always, the weapon is shown in an unsafe condition.

November's gun moll is holding an assault shotgun with the bolt closed -- a big no-no, unless you want it to accidentally go "boom". Guns should be in an observable safe posture, so why does the Blue Press, a publication dedicated to the shooting sports, emphasize sex over safety?

Probably for the same reason it allows advertisers who feature little girls wielding Uzis. Where are the grown ups? We grow older, but not wiser.

Shooting competitively since 1965, Ranger learned the first rule on the rifle range is to be safe and thoughtful, and not to take imprudent chances. The rules have not changed, but people blithely behave as though they have.