[Unidentified Male:] We have to keep that held in; otherwise, the gun won`t fire, OK? OK, turn your this leg forward. There you go. Just like that. All right, go ahead and give me one shot. All right. Where is he shot? Right in the head, dude. He`s shot in the head? Yes. I don`t think he`s going to make it.
[Unidentified Female:] Sir.
[Unidentified Male:] Yes, ma`am.
[Unidentified Female:] Is he still able to speak to you?
[Unidentified Male:] No, he`s completely unconscious.
[Abrams:] So sad. A 9-year-old girl visiting an Arizona gun range loses control of an Uzi. Gun instructor, helping her, suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head. Tonight, the family of 39-year-old, Charles Vacca, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of that gun range. I`m back with Loni, Yodit, and Mike. The victim`s family says, "It is fundamentally unsafe to give machine guns to children." Loni, what do you expect that the gun range is going to argue here?
[Coombs:] Well, there`s a number of things for them to argue. First of all, there is no legal law that says a certain age is good or not. Their policy at that gun range is that if they are 8 years or older, they can fire an assault rifle or assault weapon, however, only if that particular instructor decides that they are capable and safe to do so. So, this instructor made that determination on his own with this child, and then this instructor handled the gun with her in a way that he ended up getting shot and killed. And many experts looked at that videotape and say he made a number of mistakes as far as the way experts would have handled that situation.
[Abrams:] Yodit, we`re talking not just about an assault, we`re talking about a fully automatic weapon...
[Tewolde:] Right.
[Abrams:] ...an Uzi here...
[Tewolde:] Right.
[Abrams:] ...do you think that this is strongly a potentially strong lawsuit?
[Tewolde:] Not at all. Who would be in a better position to instruct, he has special skills, this instructor. He had the knowledge and for him to feel comfortable in handling that kind of machine gun with a 9-year-old, he`s got to bear that responsibility.
[Abrams:] Well, he is the one that put it on automatic. But let`s ask, you know, James Goodnow joins us now. He is the attorney who is representing the Vacca family. Thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it. What do you make of that? I mean, you know that the gun range is going to point the finger at your client`s former father, husband, et cetera and say it`s his fault for putting it on automatic, it`s his fault for not standing behind, it`s his fault for not taking the necessary security measures?
[James Goodnow, Attorney For Vacca Family:] Well, I think if you look at this case at its core, there`s one factor we know, and that`s if children weren`t allowed to shoot fully automatic weapons at this range, Charlie Vacca would still be alive. And I think it`s important that we step back here and understand this situation. Charlie Vacca served his country, served our country and he did two tours in Kosovo, and he came back in a situation that many veterans find themselves in, and that`s struggling to find work. He works here and the problem is he was not provided with the proper training. Yes, he had the military background but the military as far as I know doesn`t train anyone in how to teach young children how to shoot fully automatic weapons. So, Charlie Vacca is a victim of this system that was really profiting off an unsafe environment.
[Abrams:] Look, I have great sympathy for Charlie Vacca. Obviously, I have great sympathy for his family. I think no matter how you look at it this is a tragedy, but you`re a lawyer, I`m a lawyer. Our panels are lawyers. We have to also look at this through the legal prism in the end and the reality is, the Arizona authorities looked into this range after this happened, and they were fully in compliance with all Arizona laws.
[Goodnow:] Well, you have to draw a sharp distinction here between OSHA Laws or other laws and what`s negligent in the civil context here...
[Abrams:] Yes.
[Goodnow:] ...we of course know as lawyers and other people out there understand that the standard in a case like this is what`s reasonable? And is it reasonable for there to be an operation that ships tourists from Las Vegas across the border into Arizona takes them to a Disneyland-like environment with pictures of Rambo, a monster truck hamburger, and then has policies that allow young children to shoot machine guns...
[Abrams:] Yes.
[Goodnow:] ...weapons of war that fire a thousand rounds a minute...
[Abrams:] Look, I...
[Goodnow:] ...I don`t think a...
[Abrams:] ...yes, look...
[Goodnow:] ...but I don`t think the jury will conclude that.
[Abrams:] I 100% agree with you that 9-year-old should not be firing machine guns, period. There should be that should be legislated, that should be policy, et cetera but I still think you`re going to have a bit of an uphill battle here. Let me ask you to take a break for a second. We come back we`re going to hear from the victim`s children as well. They had a message for that little girl who accidently killed their dad, coming back after this.