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I read this yesterday and it is such a tragic story.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=6121915&page=1
With his father and a firearms instructor standing nearby, an 8-year-old Connecticut boy shot himself in the head with a submachine gun yesterday, killing himself in an accident some say should never have happened.
8-year-old shoots himself in the head at a Massachusetts gun show.
Christopher Bizilj was testing a 9 mm Micro Uzi at the Westfield Sportsman's Club in Westfield, Mass., as part of the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo, when he shot himself Sunday.
"The firearm instructor prepped the weapon for him, and once it was ready he handed it to the child," Westfield Police Lt. Hipolito Nunez told ABCNews.com today. Christopher then pulled the trigger, and the gun's recoil pulled the barrel upward, causing a round to hit him on the right side of his head, according Nunez. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Baystate Medical Center in nearby Springfield.
Massachusetts law allows a child to fire a gun with parental consent, so long as there's an active permit for the gun and a licensed firearm instructor is supervising. It is unclear whether the gun had a permit or whether the instructor was licensed, but Nunez said Christopher's father was nearby.
Christopher's family, including his father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, who is the director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, Conn., could not be reached for comment.
But according to Ted Oven, a gun retailer and president of the Massachusetts Association of Firearms Dealers, Christopher should have never been allowed to handle a submachine gun on his own.
Oven has shot similar weapons and said the recoil is tough to control even for an adult.
"It requires all my strength," said Oven, who added that he did not have much experience with the Micro Uzi. "For an 8-year-old, it was inappropriate."
The Micro Uzi, he said, is a tough gun to get a permit for and retails for several thousand dollars. He was not at the expo when Christopher was shot but said that because the gun is fully automatic, it likely shot off several rounds in a couple of seconds when the boy pulled the trigger.
Information found on Uzitalk.com, an Internet forum dedicated to the Israeli-made submachine guns, described the Micro Uzi as coming on the market in 1986 and having the capability to fire 25 rounds in less than 30 seconds. The guns, manufactured by Israeli Military Industries Ltd., are generally designed for military and police use.
I read this yesterday and it is such a tragic story.
ing horrible. No child should be allowed to handle automatic weapons. You redneck gun freaks wanna allow your kids to handle guns fine but never heavy weaponry.
The solution is more guns, guns for everyone, guns everywhere.
wow....He should of accidentally shot the dad, but this is the father's fault. He will however live with that the rest of his lift so I'd say he is punished enough
I can understand how a parent with an overzealous desire to teach their children about fire arms could let this happen. What boggles my mind is that a licensed firearms instructor seemed to think this was a perfectly fine idea. I'm not a gun owner, maybe it's not my place to judge, but simply seeing the words "8 year old" and "submachine gun" together in the same sentence sets off all sorts of common sense alarms. Growing up in Texas, I've known plenty of people who had their first experience around that age learning to shoot their father's hunting rifle or something along those lines, but a friggin Uzi?
And not to make light of anything in this story, but am I the only one that kind chuckled at the discovery that a site called uzitalk.com exists?
They should of listened to the words of Public Enemy .......My Uzi weighs a ton!
Those were basically my thoughts as well. The instructor should have had some idea that the weapon has a recoil that a small child couldn't handle.
I'm with you. What a waste of time. Freaks. Those people who post there need to get a life and visit message boards that focus on the important issues.And not to make light of anything in this story, but am I the only one that kind chuckled at the discovery that a site called uzitalk.com exists?
What a waste of life. Goes to show that you can go to school for years and still be an idiot.
Bet they say the same thing about our site...lmao
ing pitbulls.
ouch
As for the people that won't say it should never have happened, I'm hoping CPS pays them a visit.
Root of all evil they are.
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