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Author Topic: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show  (Read 1105 times)

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hunter

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Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« on: October 28, 2008, 09:24:06 AM »

WESTFIELD, Mass. – With an instructor watching, an 8-year-old boy at a gun fair aimed an Uzi at a pumpkin and pulled the trigger as his dad reached for a camera.

It was his first time shooting a fully automatic machine gun, and the recoil of the weapon was too much for him. He lost control and fatally shot himself in the head.

Full story at CNN.com
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mr_magoo

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2008, 09:28:04 AM »

Very sad, that should get the anti gun people going.
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hunter

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2008, 09:32:35 AM »

Very unusual.  A full auto recoil usually moves the barrel up and it should have ended up with the Mozelle above his head or if he couldn't hold the stock, it would have moved the Mozelle up and the stock down which would point the Mozelle at his head except that such a move also pull the finger off the trigger.  Very odd.
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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2008, 09:51:48 AM »

Very sad... :( :'(

Side note - even though this is a news event the "In The News" board is now for motorcycle related news only thus this thread was moved to Off Topic.

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TheVgirl

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2008, 10:37:29 AM »

I was going to ask, d00d!

I saw the story here...
http://news.aol.com/article/boy-8-killed-in-gun-show-accident/226339?icid=100214839x1211852858x1200720002

And AOL has a survey as to who is at fault?
No one
The dad
The instructor
Both, dad and instructor
or
Too soon to tell. 

I'm not anti-gun, but I have to wonder what was the dad thinking?  The boy was EIGHT!!!  Did the father shoot the gun first to see what the recoil was like?  Shouldn't he have assisted the little boy the first time?  Maybe moms are just a little over-protective but I don't think so in this case.  When we gave my 7-year-old his first BB gun, we were anal about gun safety, wouldn't let him shoot it without an adult, and would not even entertain the idea of him firing any other firearm until he took the hunter safety class (which I believe was not available until age 8 ).  It's tragic!  Of course, it's easy for me to comment on it because I was not there and don't know what the adults were thinking.  Obviously they both thought he was ready for the experience and I'm sure both adults are probably beating themselves up emotionally already.  I know that I would not want to be that Dad when he had to go tell Mom what happened to her little boy.  My heart goes out to the whole family. 
« Last Edit: October 28, 2008, 10:41:02 AM by TheVgirl »
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hunter

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2008, 10:52:15 AM »

As tragic as it is, it could have been worse if he had lost control and had fired into the crowd.  The instructor is at fault first and then the father who trusted the instructor. IMO.  :nixweiss:
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TheVgirl

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2008, 11:03:45 AM »

From AP News, his father is quoted:
"This accident was truly a mystery to me," said Bizilj, director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, Conn. "This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don't know why it happened."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hl-VtQImXVuBfNXTpNMvOgFOxj2wD94369V00


Seems they left out the rest of the quote that was in the Boston Globe which goes much more in-depth as to what happened and has photos of other children firing the gun:
"This accident was truly a mystery to me,” he said. “This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don’t know why it happened. I don’t think it’s relevant that he wasn’t holding the weapon.”
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/10/police_identify_6.html

Here is an article with a video of the father.  
http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/Father-of-Bizilj-says-Christopher-wont-be-forgotten-/1225138523.html

The dad is remarkably holding it together, but I don't think the mom and 10-year-old brother, who witnessed the accident, are doing so well.  Grieving the loss of a child is hard enough.  Doing so publicly cannot help matters.  
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TheVgirl

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2008, 11:18:28 AM »

Hunter, I'm going to go ahead and post the text from the Boston Globe.  You're right.  This is going to stir up the anti-gun folks. 
What is going to cause the most damage is the flyers and advertisements posted by the gun club.  Seems geared toward youth.  Or maybe I'm just biased.  Most of my exposure to firearms has been through the DNR, hunting and fishing expos, etc and seems to focus on gun safety, hunter safety, and precision. 




As Bizilj reached for his camera, the boy clutched the gun in his arms and squeezed the trigger. The Uzi flipped backwards and 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj fatally shot himself in the head.

“It was all a blur,” Dr. Charles Bizilj said this afternoon in a telephone interview. “I’m still in the grieving process.”

Christopher was accompanied by a trained professional as he held the 9-mm Micro Uzi machine gun at the Westfield Sportsman's Club Sunday afternoon, but Bizilj said he doesn’t think the shooting guide was holding the weapon as his son pressed the trigger.

“This accident was truly a mystery to me,” he said. “This is a horrible event, a horrible travesty, and I really don’t know why it happened. I don’t think it’s relevant that he wasn’t holding the weapon.”

He said his son, a third grader who loved to hike and bike, had experience firing handguns and rifles. But he said this was the first time he had fired an automatic weapon.

"I gave permission for him to fire the Uzi,” Bizilj said. “I watched several other children and adults use it. It’s a small weapon, and Christopher was comfortable with guns. There were larger machine guns with much more recoil, and we avoided those.”

Bizilj, the medical director of the emergency department at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, Conn., said that his son was “very cautious, very well trained, and very much enjoyed firing.”

When his son pressed the trigger Sunday, it was the first gun he had fired all day. “It took about an hour to get there, and it was something he was looking forward to for months,” Bizilj said.

The annual Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo is a two-day event. Police are investigating whether the Westfield Sportsman’s Club and the group running the event were licensed. “We haven’t confirmed whether either have been licensed,” said Westfield Police Lieutenant Hipolito Nuñez.

The sportsman's club boasted in an advertisement for the event posted on its website that the $5 entry fee was waived for children under age 16 and there was "no age limit or licenses required to shoot machine guns."

"It’s all legal & fun," the advertisement says. "You will be accompanied to the firing line with a Certified Instructor to guide you. But You Are In Control – "FULL AUTO ROCK & ROLL."

Shooting targets for the event included vehicles, pumpkins, and "other fun stuff we can’t print here," according to the advertisement.

Christopher Bizilj was firing the weapon at an outside firing range and was wounded once in the head when the recoil forced the gun to rotate upward and backward, Nuñez said. The boy was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. He was pronounced dead at the hospital with one gunshot wound to the head. No one else was injured.

State law requires anyone under age 18 to have parental consent and a licensed instructor to fire an automatic weapon. Otherwise, there’s no minimum age to fire such a gun, Nuñez said.

“We do not know at this time the full facts of this incident, and it's being investigated," Nuñez said.

The event at the club was organized by C.O.P. Firearms & Training, an Amherst company that, according to its website, organizes machine gun shoots throughout New England. Officials from that group also could not be reached.


(David Molnar / The Republican of Springfield)

Devin Connery of Lunenburg, Mass., fired a Heckler & Koch UMP on Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club. This photograph was taken before 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj apparently lost control of an Uzi and shot himself in the head.

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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2008, 01:44:42 PM »


You will be able to tell from this question that I'm not a gun person, but when in the hell did it become legal for civilians to own or fire fully automatic weapons?  What's next, a civilian version of an Abrams tank for when your neighbor really pisses you off?

Jerry
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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #9 on: October 28, 2008, 02:49:40 PM »

You will be able to tell from this question that I'm not a gun person, but when in the hell did it become legal for civilians to own or fire fully automatic weapons?  What's next, a civilian version of an Abrams tank for when your neighbor really pisses you off?

Jerry

Hi Jerry,
Originally there was no restriction to ownership of fully automatic weapons and you could mail order one just like buying a shotgun or rifle. Then in 1934 due to criminal use of Tommy Guns and BARs as well as other full auto weapons the National Firearms Act was imposed and it's still in effect today.
Anyone with a clean criminal backround and no mental health problems can buy a full auto weapon if they have the money and get the permit and pay the $200 fee to the Feds. They had a registration period back in the 1930s for civilians and the weapons registered could be sold to others when the proper permits were obtained. What tended to happen is each owner has added his $200 to the weapon so a gun which may have been $1,000 now is resold for $1,200 and so on until many full auto weapons cost $4,000 and up depending on condition and demand etc.
More info on the NFA here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act

As a side note you can own silencers and cannons etc. Under this act.
Also some civilians do own tanks, halftracks and other military vehicles and the use them in reenactments and for movies etc.
It is a shame that the boy was killed, It was NOT the weapon's fault but the improper supervision and handling of the weapon that lead to this tragedy.
David
« Last Edit: October 28, 2008, 02:59:19 PM by VaEagle »
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Re: Boy, 8, fatally shoots self with Uzi at gun show
« Reply #10 on: October 28, 2008, 05:46:01 PM »

i guess it is why they call them accidents, it never fails to amaze me though as to what some folks consider to be safe.

If I was there I may have had my kid shoot when he was eight too, but odds are I wouldn't have been there.

Currently I can't count the number of guns I own both handguns and long guns, but I never had my kid a gun fire a gun in any "range" shooting exercise in which I gave him more than one round at a time.

Hell, I still only load a single round when I bench shoot today.  If I'm plinking I have a fully loaded weapon.

I guess I'll have to ponder the sensibility of the fully automatic shooting expo. :nixweiss:
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