You can’t fix stupid. So says comic Ron White. True that. But who takes the award for the most stupid? Tough question, ain’t it?
I am talking about the tragedy of the 9-year-old New Jersey girl who accidentally killed an instructor at an Arizona gun range while she was on vacation with her parents and was allowed to handle a fully loaded, fully automatic 9mm Uzi — for fun.
On the one hand, the owners of Bullets and Burgers, where this occurred, should never, ever have allowed any child of any age to learn how to shoot anything but basketball hoops. As responsible owners of a shooting range they should have known better. Better to serve burgers with a supersized order of fries and leave the ammo and shooting to practiced adults.
On the other hand, the parents, thinking it was a fun activity, and allowing their child to handle such a dangerous weapon by signing her up for lessons from the get-go, run a close second.
They certainly should have known better.
“Guns still plague America like an incurable social disease — and Congress does nothing about it,” said columnist Denis Hamill on Aug. 27.
Sorry Mr. Hamill I disagree. Stupidity is the incurable social disease that plagues America and it’s spreading daily.
Why hold Congress responsible? Congress has it’s own stupid.
A New York Post article claimed range operator Sam Scarmardo said “I have regret we let this child shoot,” adding, “the parents had signed waivers saying they understood the ranges’s rules.”
And is this not the height of stupidity? Regret? You betcha! Big deal they understood the rules — but the instructor is still dead —guess the rules didn’t help any.
Let’s put the blame where it belongs — the parents, the owner of Bullets and Burgers, the instructor for putting a deadly weapon in the hands of a nine-year old, and finally the stupid society that made a Bullets and Burgers shooting palace a profitable business model in the first place.
It ain’t the members of Congress, and it ain’t the gun.
No, sad to say, but the fault is simply put — stupidity.
You have to wonder what would possess any parent to allow their child to do this as a fun vacation activity? What were they thinking? “Hey hon wouldn’t it be a hoot to teach our young’un to shoot an Uzi?”Why in god’s name would a nine-year old ever have the need to know how to use an automatic 9mm assault weapon anyway?
Come on now – You don’t have to be a Mensa member to figure this one out.
The $60,000 dollar answer is “Stupidity.”
Because of stupidity a child will live with this horror for the rest of her life.
Because of stupidity a family is without a father and husband.
Because of stupidity — not guns, not Congress, not the NRA— this senseless tragedy happened.
Not for nuthin,™ but whatever happened to taking goofy pictures and sending out post cards for a fun vacation experience? Can we at least try and fix stupid?
Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.
