The four children of Charles Vacca, the gun instructor who was killed when a nine-year-old girl lost control of an uzi at an Arizona gun range last month, released a video message Monday to the unnamed girl. 
 
 “We don’t know your name, but we are connected by this tragedy,” Vacca’s 11-year-old son Christopher said in the video, which was released by the family’s legal counsel. 
 
 
 
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 “Our dad would want you to know that you should move forward with your life,” Vacca’s 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth said. “You should not let this define you. You should love yourself – and love your family.” 
 
 “Some day we hope that we can meet you, hug you, and tell you that it’s okay,” Christopher said. 
 
 Attorney James Goodnow appeared at the end of the video, saying that the family was cognizant of the “broader national discussion” over gun culture induced by the incident, but that the family hoped it would not overshadow the personal tragedy, both for the Vacca family and for the nine-year-old. 
 
 Watch the video below, via Lamber Goodnow: 
 
 [Image via screengrab] 
 
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 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| 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. ||||| KINGMAN, Ariz. — The family of a 9-year-old girl who accidentally killed her instructor at a northwestern Arizona shooting range spoke out through a lawyer Tuesday, saying they were devastated and are praying for the man’s family. 
 
 The statement came just over a week after the Aug. 25 shooting of instructor Charles Vacca at the Last Stop range in White Hills, about 60 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The family’s comments came the same day investigators released police reports and 911 recordings involving the shooting. 
 
 The girl, who has not been named, had fired several single shots with a 9 mm Uzi machine gun, a video taken on the mother’s cellphone showed, but then lost control after she fired the weapon on automatic mode. 
 
 The father and mother, Alex and Alison MacLachlan, told investigators that their daughter indicated the weapon was “too much” for her and that its recoil hurt her shoulder. 
 
 No one noticed at first that Charles Vacca, her instructor, had fallen onto a table with blood streaming from his head. 
 
 Instructor Ross Miller rushed to his aid, laid him on the ground and called 911, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office reported. 
 
 “Ross said that he saw the girl shoot the weapon and due to the recoil, the weapon went straight up in the air and crossed the path where Charles had his head,” an investigator recounted in the incident report. 
 
 Five 911 calls totaling about 10 minutes in duration were released Tuesday. Those reporting the incident implored dispatchers to rush medical support to the Last Stop, a convenience store and restaurant enterprise between Las Vegas and Phoenix. 
 
 “We need a helicopter,” one caller said. “An ambulance ain’t going to work. We need a helicopter.” 
 
 Dispatchers advised civilians to apply cloth and pressure to the gunshot wound to the head sustained by Vacca. They directed civilians to turn the 39-year-old instructor from Lake Havasu City on his side so fluids could drain from his mouth. 
 
 One man can be heard on the tape encouraging Vacca to fight for life. “Keep breathing, keep breathing brother,” he told Vacca. 
 
 Vacca died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas about 11 hours after the shooting after being airlifted there. 
 
 “Words cannot express the family’s sadness about the accidental shooting of Charles Vacca,” the family’s lawyer’s statement on Tuesday said. “They prayed day and night that he would survive his injury, and they continue to pray for his family during this terribly difficult time.” 
 
 “They are devastated by this accident that turned what was supposed to be a unique and brief excursion from their summer vacation into a life changing tragedy.” 
 
 Sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Thien said in his report that the father, a New Jersey resident, told him that the family of five had taken a shuttle from Las Vegas to the shooting range. The man said they enjoyed a Monster truck ride before he, his wife, their two daughters and their son were taken to the range. 
 
 The Sheriff’s Office determined that the accident occurred after Vacca switched the weapon to “fully automatic” and has so far called the shooting accidental. 
 
 Four live rounds were left in the Uzi as it was placed into evidence at the scene. 
 
 The father, mother and their children quickly left the range after the accident and moved to the restaurant about 100 yards away before interviews were conducted. The father told police the family was in shock and just wanted “to leave the area and go back to Vegas.” 
 
 The reports indicated that the Sheriff’s Office has communicated with a representative of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that is also conducting an investigation. 
 
 Shooting range owner Sam Scarmardo said last week that age-related rules and other regulations and policies are under review. He said thousands of people had previously fired weapons at the range with no incidents or injuries. 
 
 The reports indicated that investigators were unable to retrieve liability waiver forms signed by the parents that were blown away in the wind after the accident. 
 
 Sheriff Jim McCabe has said that no citations or charges will result from the accident. 
 
 Chief Deputy Mohave County Attorney Jace Zack said his office would review incident reports, but that prosecution of any sort is unlikely. 
 
 Review-Journal writer Annalise Little and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
– The family of a gun instructor accidentally killed by a 9-year-old has a video message for the girl, Mediaite reports: "Our dad would want you to know that you should move forward with your life," says Charlie Vacca's 15-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. "You should not let this define you. You should love yourself, and love your family." Says son Christopher, 11: "We don't know your name, but we are connected by this tragedy … someday we hope we can meet you, hug you, and tell you that it's OK." Watch it here.