Gun show free-for-all leaves 8 year old dead

By Anonymous - 10/28/08 - 2:38 am

The mother of an 8-year-old boy who shot himself to death at a supervised gun expo in Westfield yesterday says she’ll remember her son as an angel.

“He was a beloved, beautiful child. He was an angel,” said Suzanne Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., whose third-grade son, Christopher, died Sunday after firing an Uzi submachine gun at the Westfield Sportman’s Club.

Christopher apparently lost control as he fired the gun, forcing it upwards and back, causing him to shoot himself in the head, said Westfield Police Lt. Hipolito Nunez. Christopher was under the supervision of a certified instructor, as well as his father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, when he was shot.

The annual machine gun show is advertised as a free-for-all for gun enthusiasts, and has created discord among some club members, said longtime club member Bob Greenleaf.

“To let an 8-year-old boy fire an Uzi is the height of stupidity,” said Greenleaf.

Does the gun dealer who brings the Uzi sub machine gun and the parent who let the kid discharge the weapon bear legal culpability for his accidental suicide?

When did assault weapons become legal at gun shows again?

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Pelham chief mum in gun show death

By Anonymous - 10/28/08 - 12:07 pm
#1

Follow-up coverage on the gun show death of the 8 year old.

Pelham chief mum

PELHAM - Pelham's police chief is declining to comment on his involvement with a weekend gun show in Westfield at which an 8-year-old boy from Connecticut died after shooting himself in the head with an Uzi submachine gun.

Police Chief Edward Fleury is the contact for a group called C.O.P. Firearms & Training that co-sponsored the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo, Saturday and Sunday, along with the Westfield Sportsman's Club.

The tragedy is prompting questions about the wisdom of allowing children to fire automatic weapons, including a rebuke offered Monday by U.S. Sen. John Kerry and criticism from an Amherst College professor who has written about the use of firearms. More here

Criminal investigation probes Uzi death of boy

By Anonymous - 10/28/08 - 8:35 pm
#2

By Nick Grabbe, Daily Hampshire Gazette, 10/28/8

SPRINGFIELD - The Hampden County district attorney has launched a criminal investigation into the shooting death of an 8-year-old boy at a Westfield firearms fair Sunday.

WCVB Coverage

By Anonymous - 10/28/08 - 8:37 pm
#3

An 8-year-old Connecticut boy accidentally shot himself in the head while firing an Uzi at a Massachusetts gun club during the weekend. Link to video

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