Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Dumbass of the Week Award Goes to: Charles Vacca, Firearms Instructor

It's called the "Last Stop" and, for 39-year old Arizonan, Charles Vacca, it lived up to its name.  For Charles Vacca, the Last Stop was a shooting range where he was a firearms instructor.

Charlie Vacca's Last Stop began when he handed a 9-year old girl, a ripfire Uzi submachine gun that fires 1,200 rounds a minute, 20-rounds a second.  Charlie first had the girl fire a single round before he went into life-ending mode and switched the weapon to fully automatic.

As the first rounds came out of the Uzi the girl lost control of the weapon, the recoil sending it up and to the left, right where Charlie's head came in the line of fire.  And that was the Last Stop for Charles Vacca, firearms instructor.

Folks, putting  a rapid-fire automatic pistol into the hands of an inexperienced, 9-year old is probably not going to end well.  I feel very badly for the girl and angry at her parents.  What kind of father or mother allows their child to be put in that position?  As for Charlie, well I feel sad for his family but not for him.  He went full-bore dumbass and he left that girl in the condition she'll live with for the rest of her life.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who, in their right mind, would give an adolescent a loaded Uzi sub machine gun? Now we know.

Anonymous said...

No Kidding! Anyong

Anonymous said...

Guns really do kill people, especially if you put them into the hands of children who can't control them. I wonder how the NRA will spin this one?

Lorne said...

I do believe a new candidate for one of this year's Darwin Awards has been announced.

The Mound of Sound said...

The video is all over YouTube. Fortunately the video is cut before the rounds start to hit this guy. I hope that little girl, pre-adolescent by the way, never has to view the security video of this guys head getting pulped while her finger is still on the trigger.

Anonymous said...

Leftists have no moral compass.Calling this poor man a dumbass is depraved.

Anonymous said...

Please delete this page. It is a very tragic accident, no doubt.

Though you are entitled to your own opinion, it is right of you to publically shame them? Do you think you are above any such tragedy happening to you?

Accidents happen. And those people must feel terrible.

This is far too serious us to behave insensitively, unaware of our own ignorance.

You do not know those parents, that girl, that instructor. So please do not judge. If I may suggest - learn about yourself.

Troy said...

"Leftists have no moral compass.Calling this poor man a dumbass is depraved."

Oh, as if you even give a shit. Be honest.

"Though you are entitled to your own opinion, it is right of you to publically shame them?"

Well, yes. Accidents that could have been prevented by people simply being smarter should be shamed.
The lesson in this tragedy needs to be taught, far and wide.
The only shame in this tragedy is a grown man giving a loaded weapon of mass destruction to a child. That he died is a lesson of arrogance and ignorance.

"Do you think you are above any such tragedy happening to you?"

Well, er, yes. I should think I'll never give a loaded uzi to a kid, whose arms ain't strong enough to even control it when it's firing.

Anonymous said...

Troy Thomas, the anons are just right wing Harper trolls

The Mound of Sound said...

No, I will absolutely not take down this post. Yes, accidents happen, and when they're unforeseeable we should be accepting. This was criminally negligent. The outcome was entirely foreseeable. That child did not have the musculature or the body mass essential for firing that weapon. No one had any business putting her in that perilous situation - not her parents, not the shooting range, not the so-called firearms instructor to whom she was entrusted.

What's depraved is the mind that can't grasp what was perpetrated on that young girl. You've got to be pretty sick not to see that.

It is integral to any civilized society that we are each deemed to intend the logical and foreseeable consequences of our actions. That applies to me, that applies to you, that applies to Dumbass and this girl's parents.

Scotian said...

"The outcome was entirely foreseeable. That child did not have the musculature or the body mass essential for firing that weapon." MoS 9:07 Aug 28 2014

And this is the heart of why this is such a foreseeable tragedy and why this post if anything is not as caustic as it could (and in my mind should) be towards this idiot so called firearms instructor who paid with his life, the likelihood of the girl being scarred/traumatized for life, and in general just an all around example of my favourite expression in action, never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Before someone calls me out, I was an assistant range officer for several years in my younger days, so I am hardly unaware of basic firearms safety protocols, and one of the most basic is you never EVER forget about the bloody recoil and the need to control it, and this is going to be especially true with a fully automatic weapon!!! There was no way this girl was going to be able to keep this under control in automatic mode, and that this is so foreseeable that it verges on stating the absolutely obvious should be readily apparent to anyone with even the slightest ability to reason, let alone someone supposedly qualified to teach firearms safety and usage at a range!

Anyone that fails to grasp this is only showing a level of intelligence on a par or under of that winner of the Darwin Award IMHO. This has nothing to do with where you sit on a political spectrum, this is about such basic reasoning, logic, and common sense level, that anyone could see it other simply shows their own limitations IMHO.

This was an act of utter stupidity pure and simple, and as tragic as the outcome was at least the only death was the one who created the situation and not others as well who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is the only positive I see in this whole sorry mess.