LAS VEGAS (AP) — The death of an Arizona firearms instructor by a 9-year-old girl who was firing a fully automatic Uzi displayed a tragic side of what has become a hot industry in the U.S.: gun tourism. 
 
 A man closes off an entrance to the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, in White Hills, Ariz. Gun range instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed Monday, Aug. 25, 2014 at... (Associated Press) 
 
 People are seen at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, in White Hills, Ariz. Gun range instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed Monday, Aug. 25, 2014 at the range by... (Associated Press) 
 
 An employee smokes outside of an office for the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, in White Hills, Ariz. Instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed at the range by a 9-year-old... (Associated Press) 
 
 A young person runs by the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, in White Hills, Ariz. Gun range instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed Monday, Aug. 25, 2014 at the range... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Aug. 25, 2014 image made from video provided by the Mohave County Sheriff Department, firing-range instructor Charles Vacca, left, shows a 9-year old girl how to use an Uzi. Vacca, 39, was standing... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This July 28, 2012 file photo provided by Bob MacDuff shows Lindsae MacDuff holding an automatic weapon at the Gun store in Las Vegas after her "shotgun wedding." Tourists from Japan flock to ranges... (Associated Press) 
 
 A man closes off an entrance to the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, in White Hills, Ariz. Gun range instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed Monday, Aug. 25, 2014 at... (Associated Press) 
 
 With gun laws keeping high-powered weapons out of reach for most people — especially those outside the U.S. — indoor shooting ranges with high-powered weapons have become a popular attraction. 
 
 Tourists from Japan flock to ranges in Waikiki, Hawaii, and the dozen or so that have cropped up in Las Vegas offer bullet-riddled bachelor parties and literal shotgun weddings, where newly married couples can fire submachine gun rounds and pose with Uzis and ammo belts. 
 
 "People just want to experience things they can't experience elsewhere," said Genghis Cohen, owner of Machine Guns Vegas. "There's not an action movie in the past 30 years without a machine gun." 
 
 The accidental shooting death of the firing-range instructor in Arizona set off a powerful debate over youngsters and guns, with many people wondering what sort of parents would let a child handle a submachine gun. 
 
 Instructor Charles Vacca, 39, was standing next to the girl Monday at the Last Stop range in White Hills, Arizona, about 60 miles south of Las Vegas, when she squeezed the trigger. The recoil wrenched the Uzi upward, and Vacca was shot in the head. 
 
 Prosecutors say they will not file charges in the case. The identities of the girl and her family have not been released. 
 
 The dusty outdoor range calls itself the Bullets and Burgers Adventure and touts its "Desert Storm atmosphere." 
 
 Similar attractions have been around since the 1980s in Las Vegas, although the city has experienced a boom of such businesses in the past few years. Excitement over guns tends to spike when there's fear of tighter gun restrictions, according to Dan Sessions, general manager of Discount Firearms and Ammo, which houses the Vegas Machine Gun Experience. 
 
 There's also the prohibitive cost of owning an automatic weapon — an M5 might go for $25,000, while a chance to gun down zombie targets with an AR-15 and three other weapons costs less than $200. 
 
 "It's an opportunity that people may not come across again in their lifetime," Sessions said. 
 
 Tourists from Australia, Europe or Asia, where civilians are barred from many types of guns, long to indulge in the quintessentially American right to bear arms. 
 
 "People have a fascination with guns," said Cohen, who is from New Zealand and estimates about 90 percent of his customers are tourists. "They see guns as a big part of American culture, and they want to experience American culture." 
 
 The businesses cast a lighthearted spin on their shooting experiences, staging weddings in their ranges and selling souvenir T-shirts full of bullet holes. 
 
 But behind the bravado, owners acknowledge they are one errant movement away from tragedy. Cohen's business, for example, is installing a tethering system that will prevent machine guns from riding upward after firing — the same motion that killed the gun instructor this week. 
 
 "Guns are designed to cause damage, and if they're mishandled, they'll do exactly that," said Bob Irwin, owner of The Gun Store, the original Las Vegas machine gun attraction. "They have to be respected." 
 
 Sam Scarmardo, who operates the outdoor range in Arizona where the instructor was killed, said Wednesday that the parents had signed waivers saying they understood the rules and were standing nearby, video-recording their daughter, when the accident happened. 
 
 "I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Charlie was killed in the incident," Scarmardo said. He said he doesn't know what went wrong, pointing out that Vacca was an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. 
 
 Jace Zack, chief deputy for the Mohave County Attorney's Office, said the instructor was probably the most criminally negligent person involved in the accident for having allowed the child to hold the gun without enough training. 
 
 "The parents aren't culpable," Zack said. "They trusted the instructor to know what he was doing, and the girl could not possibly have comprehended the potential dangers involved." 
 
 Still, the accident has raised questions about whether children that young should be handling such powerful weapons. 
 
 "We have better safety standards for who gets to ride a roller coaster at an amusement park," said Gerry Hills, founder of Arizonans for Gun Safety, a group seeking to reduce gun violence. Referring to the girl's parents, Hills said: "I just don't see any reason in the world why you would allow a 9-year-old to put her hands on an Uzi." 
 
 In 2008, an 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head with an Uzi at a gun expo near Springfield, Massachusetts. Christopher Bizilj was firing at pumpkins when the gun kicked back. A former Massachusetts police chief whose company co-sponsored the gun show was later acquitted of involuntary manslaughter. 
 
 Dave Workman, senior editor at thegunmag.com and a spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said it can be safe to let children shoot an automatic weapon if a properly trained adult is helping them hold it. 
 
 After viewing the video of the Arizona shooting, Workman said Vacca appeared to have tried to help the girl maintain control by placing his left hand under the weapon. But automatic weapons tend to recoil upward, he noted. 
 
 "If it was the first time she'd ever handled a full-auto firearm, it's a big surprise when that gun continues to go off," said Workman, a firearms instructor for 30 years. "I've even seen adults stunned by it." 
 
 Scarmardo said his policy of allowing children 8 and older to fire guns under adult supervision and the watchful eye of an instructor is standard practice in the industry. The range's policies are under review, he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press Writer Gene Johnson contributed to this report from Seattle. ||||| Some gun owners took to Twitter to defend the practice of letting children use firearms and pointed out that it is both legal and commonplace in the Las Vegas area and elsewhere. But even the owner of Last Stop, Sam Scarmardo, said he would reconsider the practice in light of Monday’s accident. He said he had been in business 14 years and had never had a problem before. 
 
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 “It is pretty standard in the industry to let children shoot on the range,” Mr. Scarmardo said in an interview. “We are working with the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, and we’ll make a decision if we’ll make any changes after we review all the facts.” 
 
 Mr. Scarmardo said that the girl’s parents “were very familiar with weapons” and that Mr. Vacca and a tour guide had driven the family to the shooting range from their hotel in Las Vegas. 
 
 “We lost a friend — basically, we lost a brother. We are all very close. We are a tightknit organization and community,” Mr. Scarmardo said. “Everyone here at Last Stop is either former military or police officer. We are all highly trained in firearms and safety.” 
 
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 There is nothing illegal about a girl handling an Uzi. In Arizona, there are no age limits for firing guns, and while federal law prohibits people under 18 from possessing a handgun, there are exceptions for shooting ranges, said Laura Cutilletta, senior staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a legal nonprofit that works to strengthen gun laws. 
 
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 Some ranges in the area do prohibit young children from handling such heavy weapons, but Last Stop allows children as young as 8 to participate. Bullets and Burgers said on its website that customers could “shoot a wide variety of fully automatic machine and belt fed guns including the AK-47, Colt M-16, MP5/40, FN FAL, Bren, M4, M249, M60, PKM and M203 Grenade Launcher.” 
 
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 But Uzis are considered particularly tricky because they are light — unloaded, they weigh just under eight pounds — and powerful, making recoil tricky to handle even for adults, gun experts said. Designed for the Israeli military in the 1950s, Uzis are known for their simple design and operation, and they have been featured extensively in popular movies and video games. 
 
 “We allow children to shoot, but not a fully automatic Uzi,” said Genghis Cohen, owner of an indoor shooting range, Machine Guns Vegas. He called the shooting on Monday tragic, but added, “It was completely and utterly avoidable.” 
 
 “It was just a result of a lapse of attention,” Mr. Cohen said, “but I would never let a girl of that size shoot a fully automatic gun of that size — never.” 
 
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 Mr. Cohen said that Uzis were notorious for rising as they fire, although usually to the right rather than the left. The video of the girl firing the Uzi on Monday shows the weapon rising and jerking to the left, toward Mr. Vacca. 
 
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 Mr. Cohen said it was “pretty much the same situation” as in 2008 at a gun show in Westfield, Mass., when an 8-year-old Connecticut boy, Christopher K. Bizilj, accidentally shot and killed himself. In reaction, Connecticut imposed tougher gun regulations a year later, restricting access to machine guns for anyone under 16. 
 
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 In the video, the girl, whose name has not been released, positioned herself before the target at an outdoor shooting range in this outpost in the Mojave Desert — one leg in front of the other, torso turned to the right, hands clutched around the grip of the Uzi, which appeared compact and light enough for her age and small build. When the girl fired her first shot, a puff of dust rose as the bullet hit the knoll behind the target. Mr. Vacca let out a celebratory “all right,” and then shifted the gun to fully automatic mode. The girl again pulled the trigger, but could not hold the gun straight as bullets came flying out at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. 
 
 Mr. Vacca “just dropped,” Sheriff Jim McCabe of Mohave County said. Mr. Vacca was airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas and died 11 hours later. 
 
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 Mr. Vacca “had a long military career” and “was very well-trained,” said Mr. Scarmardo of Last Stop, which is off a four-lane stretch of Route 93 linking Phoenix to Las Vegas, framed by mountains, cactus and sand. The place has a gift shop that sells beer, bracelets and roadside kitsch. 
 
 “In the last 14 years, we’ve probably had 100,000 people shoot five million rounds of ammunition, and of those, a thousand to two thousand of them were children,” he said. “We’ve never given out a Band-Aid — no one’s never even got a scratch.” 
 
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 Craig Cox, who is certified by the National Rifle Association to train firearms instructors, said he told students it was “a judgment call on their part as far as allowing people of a certain age, children, to use certain types of firearms,” especially submachine guns. 
 
 “This is a personal opinion,” said Mr. Cox, based in Mesa, Ariz. “I don’t think a 9-year-old should be shooting them.” 
 
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 This year, at least 45 children have been killed in accidental shootings after they found loaded guns at home, according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said that what happened at Last Stop was “an outlier.” Shooting ranges are generally regarded as safe places, where guns are fired in a controlled setting and under the supervision of trained instructors. 
 
 The tour company Bullets and Burgers had drawn numerous positive reviews on the website TripAdvisor; out of its 946 ratings, 932 were “excellent” or “very good.” An accompanying description of its services reads: “You will choose the guns which you want to shoot from our extensive collection, and we provide the eye/ear protection, ammunition, and expert guidance.” 
 
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 It adds: “Our .50 Cal. selections includes the Barrett Sniper Rifle, the Browning BMG .50 Cal (‘the deuce’) and the Desert Eagle. We even have the actual firearms used in several Hollywood hits including ‘The Terminator’ and ‘Rambo II.’ ” ||||| KINGMAN, Ariz. — An outdoor shooting range in northwest Arizona where a 9-year-old girl mortally wounded an instructor Monday is open for business, its operator said Wednesday. 
 
 Sam Scarmardo, the owner of Bullets and Burgers along U.S. Highway 93 about 60 miles southeast of Las Vegas, said the range and another he owns in Lake Havasu City have operated incident- and injury-free for years. 
 
 “We’ve had, between the two ranges, tens of thousands of people shoot and probably a thousand kids that age or younger,” Scarmardo said. “We’ve never even handed out a Band-Aid.” 
 
 Scarmardo said the death of Charles Vacca, 39, of Lake Havasu City, was an aberration and a tragic accident. He said Vacca was a longtime member of the military who was serving in the Army Reserve at the time of his death. 
 
 “We miss him, not only as an associate but as a good friend. He’s almost like a brother,” Scarmardo said. 
 
 The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said Vacca was supervising when the girl first fired a 9 mm Uzi in “single shot” mode at the range Monday about 10 a.m. Sheriff Jim McCabe said the weapon was switched to the “fully automatic” mode and the girl accidentally shot Vacca in the head as the gun recoiled and drifted left toward the instructor as it fired an undetermined amount of times. 
 
 Vacca died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas about 11 hours after the shooting. An autopsy will be conducted by the Clark County coroner’s office. 
 
 The names of the girl and her parents have been withheld. The New Jersey family was on vacation when they visited the shooting range. The parents were videotaping when the shooting occurred. 
 
 The sheriff’s office released the initial portion of the video showing Vacca instructing the girl at the range. 
 
 Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Trish Carter said the department has been inundated with news media as the story has attracted international attention. 
 
 Scarmardo said he’s well aware that the story has generated comment on gun issues on social media Internet sites. 
 
 “I’ve seen the hate mail,” Scarmardo said. “They’re the ones that are sitting downstairs in their mom’s basement with their fuzzy slippers and bathrobe and dirty underwear … because they just hate everything so much. The only thing they can do is hate everybody.” 
 
 Scarmardo told The Associated Press that his policy of allowing children 8 and older to fire guns under adult supervision and the watchful eye of an instructor is standard practice for the industry. 
 
 He said his policy is under review and that he has reached out to the National Association of Shooting Ranges for information involving age-appropriate involvement on ranges. 
 
 At the Clark County Shooting Complex in Southern Nevada, young children under adult supervision are allowed. 
 
 However, the rules for anyone using a class 3 firearm — the group that includes a 9 mm Uzi — appear to be more stringent than in the Arizona range. The Clark County facility requires a class 3 firearm to be mounted on a tripod or secured to the bench for safety reasons, complex manager Steve Carmichael said. 
 
 In the video of the girl shooting the Uzi, the gun didn’t appear to be mounted. 
 
 Under Nevada state law, if parents sign a waiver, a child who is 14 or older can shoot at a public range without bringing a parent or other adult to watch over them. Carmichael stressed that children in those cases are still under supervision of complex staff. 
 
 Children who are younger than 14 can use the county complex, provided they bring an adult to supervise them. Youngsters who are 7 and 8 years old have used the complex, he said. No one younger than 5 is allowed on the firing line, Carmichael said. 
 
 Usually a young shooter’s first experience is a .22-caliber rifle, which doesn’t have the recoil of an Uzi, Carmichael said. 
 
 Carter said the Arizona incident will be investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and that the federal Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms might also review the matter. Scarmardo said he has had contact only with the Sheriff’s Office so far. 
 
 Sheriff Jim McCabe said no citations will be issued and there will be no charges because the facility is a licensed and legal operation. 
 
 Deputy Mohave County Attorney Jace Zack said his office will eventually review incident reports, standard procedure in accidental shooting deaths. 
 
 The Burgers and Bullets enterprise was the subject of noise complaints and public safety concerns that Lance Krig brought to the attention of Mohave County officials more than two years ago. Krig sought a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief in a lawsuit he filed in Superior Court in early 2012. 
 
 Court pleadings reveal that besides noise, Krig complained about danger the business presented to the nearby Triangle Airpark airstrip and said he felt like he was taking machine gun fire when walking his dog near the range. The court dismissed the lawsuit in April of this year, ruling that he failed to meet burdens of proof required for legal intervention. 
 
 Monday’s incident isn’t the first accidental shooting by a child using an Uzi. An 8-year-old boy died after shooting himself in the head at a gun expo near Springfield, Mass., in 2008. Christopher Bizilj was firing at pumpkins when the Uzi kicked back. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-405-9781. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.
– The Last Stop outdoor shooting range at Bullets and Burgers in Arizona is open for business again, days after a deadly accident that made headlines around the world. A 9-year-old girl firing an Uzi accidentally killed an instructor at the range Monday, but the owner says that was the first accident in the range's 14-year history. In that time, "we've probably had 100,000 people shoot 5 million rounds of ammunition, and of those, 1,000 to 2,000 of them were children," he tells the New York Times. "We've never given out a Band-Aid; no one's never even got a scratch." He describes instructor Charles Vacca, who was fatally shot when the girl lost control of the weapon, as a highly trained veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who was still in the Army Reserve. The owner tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal he is aware the case has sparked fierce debate on gun issues, but he describes detractors as "the ones that are sitting downstairs in their mom's basement with their fuzzy slippers and bathrobe and dirty underwear ... because they just hate everything so much." Even some fellow gun-range owners are critical, however, saying they would never have allowed a petite 9-year-old girl to handle a weapon that powerful. The girl was from New Jersey, but Genghis Cohen, owner of a Las Vegas shooting range, tells the AP that many customers who want to fire automatic weapons are tourists from overseas. "They see guns as a big part of American culture, and they want to experience American culture," says Cohen, who is installing a tethering system to stop machine guns from rising up as they fire, like the Uzi did in the accident that killed Vacca.