Posted on 12/04/2008 3:09:36 PM PST by Red in Blue PA
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.
The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.
Christopher, of Ashford, Conn., lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin Oct. 26 at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club in western Massachusetts.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I support the RKBA, but letting an 8-year-old shoot an Uzi under the supervision of a 15-year-old is just stupid. Probably felony stupid. (Assuming, of course, that the allegation is true.)
Good, stupid is as stupid does./p>
Sounds appropriate to me. This should never have happened.
I still think Dad is ultimately responsible. As a parent in that kind of environment I would want a child of that age glued to my side.....I am sure Dad is suffering everyday with this.....so sad
maybe so, I think they will have a hard time proving the case. Depends on what “furnishing” means.
I find it hard to believe that no adult was present while the boy had the Uzi in hand... I let my son fire my AR at the range at age 12 and the rangemaster stationed himself
right behind us. Pretty clear he was liability-aware.
as for the comment about it being a hunting weapon, well
it depends what you are hunting. its a great weapon for hunting bad actors at close range.
Maybe, but automatic weapons aren't toys and they are often treated as such. That Uzi empties its magazine in a second. That's 30 recoils in a row in a second. Anyone handing that gun to a kid needs to spend time with Plaxico.
“Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.”
Good: enough said.
Well maybe not enough: these “men” are classic examples of why so many Americans confuse irresponsible gun owners with responsible ones. I have never owned a gun and never will, but as far as I’m concerned, if everybody and their mother wants a gun of just about any type, then more power to them. I for one would actually feel safer knowing that responsible ADULTS might be packing: it certainly has been proven to both deter crime in conceal carry states and it is as much a part of our culture as mom & apple pie. My reason for not owning a weapon is simple: cops hold them up like the plaugue if they find one in your home or on your person, and I just simply do not want the responsibility of woning one, especially because of KIDS. These creeps should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (even more if once in prison their fellow prisoners know they were responsible for a child’ death). There is absolutely NO excuse for this and it has nothing to do with gun rights. In this case, this is gun wrongs.
Seriously, what rational gun owner thinks an Uzi is ‘legal’ in Massachusetts?
And which adult lets children fire one in public?? We’re lucky we don’t have a room full of bullet ridden showgoers considering their are letting small children fire off a gun with a fire-rate in the hundreds or thousand+ per minute.
Things like this make us gun nuts look terrible.
We have to do better policing our own. Too often when someone raises a safety concern at a range or among shooters he/she gets reamed with something like, "Who made you range officer Mac?"
We have to do a better job policing our own. Gun owners are too quick to cop an attitude when criticized or when a safety concern is raised.
I know I'm guilty of it. I attended a small bore shoot where I inadvertently showed up without an open chamber flag for my rifle. One of the guys running the shoot came over, stuck a safe chamber flag in my hand and smiled. He didn't even say a word.
I was pissed at him because I was pissed off at myself for not following their protocol.
Dad was with the boy, according to the story, 10 feet away and getting his camera out to take a picture. It also says he thought the smaller Uzi would be a safer weapon for the boy and was assured this was so by someone present.
Dad was not charged because it was felt he couldn't be expected to know as much as the people presented as experts.
I agree. But I'm glad that Dad wasn't charged. Other than the decision to let the boy shoot he doesn't seem to have been involved and he's already been punished enough.
This comes pretty close to the classic definition of tragedy.
I’ve never believed in jail for involuntary manslaughter on a clean record. Jail is for criminals who want to or don’t care if they hurt someone, involuntary manslaughter is bad judgement or an accident that results in death.
That said, an Uzi is a death weapon. It’s crazy to let young children fool with such things. It’s not like taking your child hunting, for goodness sake.
I believe his father was right there and turned his back to get his camera.
Tragically this is what happens when kids are not taught firearms safety at a young age under RESPONSIBLE adult supervision.
UZI’s are legal in Mass, I believe. You just have to have a $200 tax stamp issued by the NFA branch of the ATF, and after a background check by the local, then FBI, LEO’s. You have to keep the paperwork with the weapon at all times, and when you leave the state with the weapon you have to file paperwork with the ATF showing them where you’re going.
You can own full-auto weapons, suppressors and short-barreled shotguns in most states of the union, including Kansas, where it used to be illegal til they recently changed the law to allow full-auto possession.
Ed
Back in the early 70’s, one of our gunner’s mates, was squeezing off a couple of 45 rounds off our DE’s fantail. One of the ejected shells hit him, somehow, in the eye causing a reflexive wince as he pulled the trigger again. The round went through the plate steel flag mount. He never lived it down.
Point of the story being, it was “only” a 45, and he was a very experienced gunner’s mate. No way do you put an Uzi in an 8 year old’s hands.
Really feel bad for the dad and the family. Never should have happened. Poor judgment all around this tragedy.
It’s only an opinion but no 8 year-old should be in control of a 9mm submachine gun. Ever.
So sad. About as smart as letting a kid take off solo in a combat jet.
“That Uzi empties its magazine in a second. That’s 30 recoils in a row in a second.”
Some years back a friend of mine came over from England. He wanted to shoot my Desert Eagle .44. He’d been in “the Forces” so he wasn’t unfamiliar with weapons. But he’d never fired anything like a DE. First time I gave him the weapon at the range it had one round in the chamber and none in the magazine. The ceiling at that range is full of holes where people had “flinch-fired” their autos as the muzzle climbed higher and higher.
After I saw he wasn’t going to fall prey to that, he shot full mags until his wrists hurt.
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