I bet if you asked him the father of this kid would tell you all about the respect for firearms that he had instilled in his child. Its funny that he's an MD. People might be suprised how dumb "smart" people can be. I used to work as a stocker for vending machines at a place called Thiokol in Promentory Utah, I'm not suprised that you havent ever heard of it no one has, they make the booster rockets for the space shuttle. If i put outdated sandwiches in the trash next to the machines the guys out there would eat them, these are literally rocket scientists and they would eat outdated food from the trash to save a few bucks.
Meanwhile my father, who is college educated and a very smart guy but no rocket scientist or MD, taught me and my brother proper respect for firearms by the time we were 5 or 6, and wont touch food from the trash. It still gives me pause to look in the barrel of a gun even if I have just taken it apart, and I always check to see if a weapon is loaded even if Im pretty positive that it isnt.

I would be willing to bet that this kid had shot plenty of guns before this happened, but when you fire a full auto weapon for the first time you are suprised (even if someone prepares you for it) at how out of control it feels at first, and to some degree will always feel.
I agree that something should be done with the father and the instructor, something harsh. The instructor is especially to blame because he should have known that an 8 year old wouldnt be able to control an uzi. As stated before those type of guns get away from trained people on occasion.

If gun people would just live by the rule: The second you stop respecting a gun is the second it will kill you. Guns are by-and-large designed to kill people (no offense intended to any pure hunters) they should be treated accordingly.

It seems like this is a problem of arrogance meets just enough ignorance.
Bad times.