Charles Vacca, a 39-year-old male, was working as a firearms instructor at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, on August 25, 2014. That morning, he was instructing a nine-year-old girl, who was visiting the range with her parents, on how to use a 9mm Uzi submachine gun. After showing her how to stand and fire a single shot, the weapon was set to its fully automatic mode.
When the girl pulled the trigger, the powerful recoil of the automatic weapon caused the gun to travel upwards, and a stray bullet struck Vacca in the head.
Tragically, the immediate moments leading up to the incident were captured on video by the girl's parents. Vacca was airlifted to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, but he died from his injuries later that evening. The Mohave County Sheriff's Office investigated the shooting and ultimately ruled it a tragic industrial accident. As a result, no criminal charges were filed against the young girl, her family, or the operators of the shooting range.
Following the incident, the girl reportedly told her family that the gun was 'too much for her' and that it had hurt her shoulder. Her family, initially focused on her apparent discomfort, did not immediately realize that Vacca had been seriously injured until another instructor rushed to his side. The girl's family later released a statement expressing their devastation over the accident and their prayers for Vacca's family. In the absence of any suspects or arrests, the event sparked a national conversation about the safety of allowing children to handle fully automatic weapons. A wrongful death lawsuit was later filed against the shooting range by Vacca's family.
