........
As for the machine gun range tragedy that occurred, the instructor is 100% at fault, and sadly paid for his mistake(s) with his life. The girl is a complete innocent due to her age, and probably doesn't even realize the full impact of what happened, but the instructor I believe made the following mistakes (not on purpose, I think he just got too relaxed in what he was doing):
1. He was positioned wrong. He should have contemplated every worst-case scenario - a run away being one of them - and adjusted properly. He should have been positioned more behind her.
2. He had a hands off technique which failed to restrain the recoiling weapon. He was unable to react to anything that went wrong.
3. He switched to full auto without instructing the girl what he was doing and the consequence of that action. Notice she immediately pulled the trigger as soon as he selected, and I believe he was not ready when she pulled the trigger.
4. The girl never demonstrated that she could properly support the firearm. She took one single shot from a bench rest position and it looked as if he never again required that she had a proper grip on the gun when the full magazine was fired.
5. Letting her take a single shot was a good idea, but the next step should have been to go to two rounds, then three etc., not a full magazine until she was more familiar. If there was a runaway, if only two rounds would have been fired, the second probably would not have caught the instructor in the head and it would have shown that the girl was not capable of properly restraining the gun from recoil.