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“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” — Muhammad Ali
THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014
VOL. 83 NO.202
75 cents
Missing 104th fighter pilot Search efforts resume, expand By Dan Moriarty Staff Writer WESTFIELD – A Virginia State Police spokeswoman says rescuers have resumed searching for a pilot who went missing after a single-seat F-15C Eagle fighter jet assigned to the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard crashed in a remote, heavily wooded area of western Virginia. She says the search had been suspended at midnight. More than 100
people and several helicopters searched throughout the day yesterday. The search for the missing 104th Fighter Wing pilot expanded with additional Air Force resources as day broke over the Washington National Forest near Deerfield Valley, Virginia. The F-15C Eagle crashed at approximately 9:05 a.m. yesterday. Radio contact with the pilot was lost about 5 minutes earlier.
A search helicopter lands close to the scene where an Air Force F-15C fighter jet based at Barnes crashed near Deerfield, Va. The jet was on a standard training exercise to receive a system upgrade and had no munition onboard, said Maj. Matthew Mutti. Officials said the pilot’s status was unknown. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Griffin Moores)
U.S. Air National Guard Col. James Keefe, commander of the 104th Fighter Wing, takes questions from reporters in front of Barnes Air National Guard Base, in Westfield, Mass., Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, about a crashed Massachusetts Air National Guard F-15C fighter. An experienced pilot on a standard maintenance mission was missing Wednesday after his fighter jet crashed in the mountains of western Virginia. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Officials say the pilot reported an inflight emergency, then lost radio contact. Several local residents reported hearing three loud booms. No injuries were reported on the ground. Officials haven’t yet said what caused the crash or whether the pilot ejected. Since yesterday morning, a search and rescue operation has been ongoing in Virginia. The search efforts now include a specially equipped HC-130 aircraft assigned to Moody Air Force Base. This aircraft has specialized equipment designed for
Possible military jet crash scene near Deerfield, Virginia.
(Photo WAVY-
TV in Virginia.)
low-light/night-time search and rescue operations. The HC-130 has been conducting air operation since 3 a.m. Additionally, as many as seven helicopters have been conducting aerial night searches. Throughout yesterday, at least 100 state police, sheriff’s deputies and fire and rescue personnel had been on scene. The ground search slowed overnight due to the dangerous terrain around the crash site. Approximately 10 search-and-rescue teams were on the ground searching along logging roads, fire trails and forest roads. The terrain is too treacherous for off-road ground searches in the dark, according to Geller. The search for the missing pilot
and the investigation into the crash are ongoing. Yesterday, Col. James Keefe, Commander of the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard said at a news conference at Barnes that the missing pilot is an experienced flyer. He said the plane was on its way to New Orleans to have a radar installed as part of routine maintenance. There were no munitions on the aircraft during the cross-country trip to the New Orleans Naval Air Station where the aircraft was being modified with the newer radar system. See Missing Pilot, Page 8
Shooting stirs debate about children and guns By MICHELLE RINDELS and JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press 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. 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 expe-
rience 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
Q&A: Few laws govern children at shooting range By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press A 39-year-old firing-range instructor was killed Monday while showing a 9-year-old girl how to use an Uzi submachine gun. Charles Vacca’s death at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, has raised questions about allowing young children access to such weapons at firing ranges.
In this 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 next to the girl on Monday at the Last Stop range in Arizona, south of Las Vegas, when the girl squeezed the trigger, causing the Uzi to recoil upward and shoot Vacca in the head. (AP Photo/Mohave County Sheriff Department)
People are seen at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range Wednesday, in White Hills, Ariz. Gun range instructor Charles Vacca was accidentally killed Monday at the range by a 9-year-old with an Uzi submachine gun. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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, See Shooting, Page 3
SHOULD YOUNG CHILDREN HANDLE FIREARMS LIKE UZIS? Gun experts say what types of firearms a child can handle depends largely on the strength and experience of the child — but the notion of giving a 9-year-old a fully automatic Uzi made many queasy. Joe Waldron, an NRA-certified shooting instructor and range safety officer in Washington state, said: “For me as an instructor, I would not allow it, but I wasn’t there.” Dave Workman, who was a firearms instructor for 30 years, said it can be safe to allow children to shoot automatic weapons if a properly trained adult is helping them hold it. HAVE THERE BEEN OTHER FATAL INCIDENTS AT RANGES INVOLVING CHILDREN? In 2008, an 8-year-old Connecticut boy named Christopher Bizilj accidentally killed himself at a Massachusetts gun expo when he couldn’t handle the recoil of an Uzi submachine gun similar to the one that killed Vacca. The former chief who organized the expo was acquitted of manslaughter and other charges. DO LAWS PROHIBIT YOUNG CHILDREN FROM GUN RANGES? Waldron, the legislative director of the Washington State Rifle and Pistol Association, and Workman, senior editor at thegunmag.com and a spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said they were unaware of any states restricting the ages of children at gun ranges. The National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks legislation on myriad issues, said it did not immediately have any data on the topic. Lindsey Zwicker, a staff attorney at the San Franciscobased Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said that following the 2008 shooting in Massachusetts, Connecticut adopted a law banning anyone under the age of 16 from handling machine guns at shooting ranges, even with a parent’s permission. “This is an action states can do to prevent something like this from happening again,” she said. IS IT COMMON FOR YOUNG CHILDREN TO USE GUNS? Many children learn to handle a gun at a young age — 8 or 10 — and some shoot competitively. Waldron said most typically learn on a lighter bolt-action rifle, such as a .22-caliber, with safety reminders before, during and after they handle a weapon. Continue the conversation http://thewestfieldnews.com/pulseline-form