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 A shooting range instructor in Arizona was accidentally shot and killed by a 9-year-old girl who was learning how to shoot an Uzi, authorities said on Tuesday. 
 
 Charles Vacca, 39, was teaching the girl how to use the automatic weapon on Monday morning at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, when she pulled the trigger and the kickback caused the gun to lurch over her head, investigators said. 
 
 Warning: Video contains images some viewers may find distressing 
 
 Vacca was hit by a stray bullet and airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was pronounced dead late Monday. The girl was at the range with her parents at the time, but their names were not released. 
 
 Sam Scarmardo, the manager for the Last Stop's shooting range, told NBC News that "the established practice at most shooting ranges is 8 years old and up with parental supervision." 
 
 He said Vacca was a "great guy, with a great sense of humor" and called him "very conscientious and very professional." 
 
 Scarmardo said that the range has never had a similar incident in over a decade of being open — "not even a scratch." 
 
 "I just ask everybody to pray for Charlie, and pray for the client, she’s going to have a hard time," said Scarmardo. 
 
 The Arizona Department of Public Safety referred inquiries to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, which didn't return calls for comment. 
 
 Ronald Scott, a Phoenix-based firearms safety expert, said most instructors usually have their hands on guns when children are firing high-powered weapons. "You can't give a 9-year-old an Uzi and expect her to control it," Scott told the Associated Press. ||||| 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 instructor who was shot by a 9-year-old girl who fired an Uzi at a northwestern Arizona shooting range died Monday night at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. 
 
 The girl fired the weapon at the outdoor range that caters to heavy tourism traffic along U.S. Highway 93 between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon Skywalk. 
 
 Highway signage and Internet advertising beckons visitors to stop in, fire a machine gun and enjoy a meal at the Bullets and Burgers enterprise at the Last Stop, about 25 miles south of Las Vegas. 
 
 The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said the accidental shooting occurred about 10 a.m. Spokeswoman Trish Carter said the girl, who was vacationing from New Jersey with her parents, was standing next to the instructor at the time. 
 
 Mohave County Sheriff Jim McCabe described a video taken of the accident as “ghastly.” His office released a short video of the girl taking her first few shots. 
 
 He said the girl safely and successfully fired the 9 mm weapon several times when it was set in the “single-shot” mode. 
 
 He said the weapon was put into the “fully-automatic” mode before the girl fired again with the instructor standing off to her left. The weapon recoiled and drifted left as the girl squeezed off an undetermined number of rounds as she maintained possession but lost control of the Uzi as it raised up above her head. 
 
 “The guy just dropped,” McCabe said of shooting instructor Charles Vacca, 39, of Lake Havasu City, who suffered at least one gunshot to the head. 
 
 Jeff Frichette, director of training for The Range 702 in Las Vegas, said the incident in Arizona would never occur at his business. He credited this to how continuously shooting range’s safety officers are trained. 
 
 “Hypothetically” a 9-year-old would be able to shoot a fully-automatic weapon, but it’s a discretionary decision, he said. 
 
 That decision is based on physical and safety guidelines, he said. 
 
 Children need to understand the concept of safety before they are allowed to shoot, Frichette said. 
 
 Also, they must be “physically and mentally prepared” before they are allowed to shoot a fully automatic weapon. This includes a 4-foot height requirement, he said, adding that even then, they have to master other weapons such as a semi-automatic .22-caliber rifle before they’re allowed to shoot a fully automatic. 
 
 He added that a petite-looking child would likely only be allowed to shoot a semi-automatic rifle. 
 
 The Review-Journal contacted several other gun ranges in Las Vegas. One did not return a call and officials at another two declined to comment. 
 
 An autopsy on Vacca’s body will be performed by the Clark County coroner’s office. 
 
 McCabe said no citations will be issued and no charges will be filed as the shooting range is a licensed and legal operation. 
 
 The Bullets and Burgers website markets a unique shooting experience for customers. 
 
 “Our guests have the opportunity to fire a wide range of fully automatic machine guns and specialty weapons,” the website states. “At our range, you can shoot FULL auto on our machine guns. 
 
 “Let ‘em Rip!” 
 
 Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Ricardo Torres contributed to this report.
– 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.