I know that I have been absent from my blog for quite some time. The summer has a way of keeping me from doing anything that resembles work. As we spend our last week in Cape Cod before returning to the reality of Boston, we have been been blessed by the best weather imaginable and a dearth of houseguests, finally.

Into this bliss comes the intrusion of yet another “Only in America” moment. This latest moment is the accidental killing of a weapons instructor by a nine year old girl firing an Uzi for fun. All this in the presence of her doting parents who were so proud of their daughter that they videotaped the whole thing. That’s the good news. Aside from the killing the bad news is the scarring of a child. I suspect that this child may have already had issues given the outstanding level of parental supervision.

No, I am not about to go on a rant about gun laws and the ridiculousness of giving private citizens the right to own and use military weapons. I have already discussed my views on this matter at length. The reality is that from a legal perspective, everyone from the innocent child, to the instructor, to the owners of Bullets and Burgers acted in a completely legal manner. These individuals acted within their legal rights as defined by legislatures and courts throughout our nation. While some of us may wish to quip about people in Nevada, the reality is that the parents of the child are from the Blue State of New Jersey. Also, according to Trip Advisor, Bullets and Burgers is the number one tourist attraction in Las Vegas. Apparently many people like to play with Uzis and grenade launchers.

Some have blamed the instructor for carelessness. While that may be the case, The instructor didn’t bring the child 2,500 miles to play with weapons of war.

My question is, what exactly led a nine year old to be holding and firing a military weapon with automatic firing capability? As the parent of two daughters of similar ages I have spent much of the past two days trying to imagine the process through which parents brought a nine year old to Las Vegas to play with an Uzi.

Perhaps this girl begged her parents to bring her. “I hear that Las Vegas is beautiful in August. there’s so much for kids to do and even though I’m not tall enough to go on the roller coaster at New York, New York, we can at least play with an Uzi or two. Thats so much better than going to the beach!” Unlikely.

Or perhaps these parents were just a couple of over-worked, under-vacationed parents (typical Americans) who wanted to go on their annual holiday to a place that they could drink, gamble, and work out some of their frustrations at the range with a grenade or two. What to do with the child? What the heck, bring her along. Nothing like some adult fun! Maybe.

Of course this child could have been the off spring of a couple of individuals who find themselves living in a country with a Black President, in a state with many Blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc. This child may have been the child of people who see government as the enemy and a need to “be prepared to defend their liberties”. Perhaps these parents felt a need to teach their child to be ready to protect what’s “her’s”. Hopefully this isn’t what happened but if I was asked to place a bet, it would be on this scenario. Sadly we see that the number of people with these beliefs seem to be on the rise. After all why did legal gun sales spike in the years following the election of Obama?

So we have a person dead for absolutely no reason. We have a nine year old permanently scarred by her killing of another human being. Of course, its possible that she was already damaged goods.

I know that everyone operated legally.

Can anyone tell me where the common sense is?

Can anyone tell me where the parenting is?