Club Settles In Child's Uzi Death At Gun Fair. Still pending is a $4 million federal lawsuit.

[onehandle]

A Massachusetts sporting club is donating $10,000 to children's charities as part of a deal settling criminal charges in the death of an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi during a gun fair.

Christopher Bizilj's parents approved the Westfield Sportsman's Club's plea deal reached Thursday in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield, where his mother's written description of their grief left the judge visibly shaken. "We trusted this event would be fun and safe," Suzanne Bizilj wrote in a statement read in court by a family attorney. "My family has been ripped apart, and relationships have been badly damaged."

Christopher, a third-grader from Ashford, Conn., died after the accidental shooting during an October 2008 gun fair at the Westfield club. His father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, and brother were a few feet away. Three men who arranged the gun fair and provided the weapons are scheduled to stand trial in June.

snip...

Still pending is a $4 million federal lawsuit the boy's family has filed against the club, the event's promoters and those who supplied the weapon and ammunition. A proposal to increase Massachusetts' penalty for corporations convicted of manslaughter to $250,000 is still awaiting action in the Legislature.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124595061&ft=1&f=1001

A pending $4 million dollar lawsuit doesn't sound like 'settled' to me.

"We trusted this event would be fun and safe" Lady, it's a gun fair. I hope you successfully take these bozos to the cleaners, but it was a gun fair.

[PavePusher]

1. The vast majority of which ARE "fun and safe".

But you knew that already, right?

Was there individual neglegence? Plenty to go around...

Parent, "instructor", gun owner. Possibly organisers, if they failed to set safety rules. They certainly can't be at fault if they did set such rules and the owners/users violated them.

[onehandle]

5. I'm taking my kids to a land mine fair tonight. I hear they are fun and safe.

We'll be walking around looking at all of the displays of land mines and listening to people talk about land mines.

My eight year old is set up to actually place an active land mine in the ground.

Oh, what fun for the kiddies!

[pipoman]

17. There are never any kids killed

at/with swimming pools, go carts, atvs, baseball, football, hockey, need I go on? probably many, many multiples of injuries and deaths than organized shooting events.

[PavePusher]

20. You forgot your sarcasm tag.

Or you are trying very hard to play the fool.

I can't tell which. :sarcasm:

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Primarily parent.

You want your ten year old kid to shoot, give him a fucking .22, not a full-auto Uzi.

idiots.

[PavePusher]

21. Oh, I agree completely.

But the owner/operator should have said "NO." as well.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Hopefully, these men will go to jail for a term not to escede the

maximum possible lifespan of Christopher Bizilj.

Why would anyone think a Gun Show is safe?

[kestrel91316]

4. They can't go to jail on a civil lawsuit. And they bought their way out of

criminal charges, as the article states. Wish the rest of us Little People could buy our way out of criminal charges........

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. No reason a gun show can't be safe

if you don't give full-auto weapons to TEN YEAR OLDS.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. But to assume they were a safe place to take kids...

Most people don't even assume a well maintained public park is a safe place for kids.

[bossy22]

11. as long as the kid is properly supervised

it is a perfectly safe place to bring him/her. They are less dangerous than taking your kid to a hockey game (I know from personal experience since i had the unfortunate experience of being hit by a puck....not fun)

[Walk away]

16. Especially now that they are filled with guns too! n/t

[PavePusher]

23. Plenty safe...

with proper and appropriate supervision.

But you knew that, right?

[cabluedem]

15. Why exactly was that allowed? You give a 10 year old an Uzi and "gun shows are safe". Yeah, right!

[pipoman]

18. You will find no defenders

of these negligent assholes around here. You do realize that MILLIONS of people attend gun shows and exhibitions every week?...millions I know a 4 year old child who died from eating a hot dog.

[SteveM]

27. From the Land of the Barking Spider!

If you have data/links showing that "gun shows" are unsafe, please provide these. I see kids at the range and at gun shows every time I visit them. No problems. But if there is a societal threat posed by "gun shows" and ranges, please show the data.

You have them, right?

[brendan120678]

10. And how responsible do you hold the father?

He brought his son to the gun show, after all.
And he permitted his son to pick up and fire the Uzi.
Isn't he the most guilty out of anybody?

[SteveM]

28. He should share in the blame. My Dad would never have let me fire that weapon...

he let me fire a .32 revolver, .22 rifles, shotguns by the time I was eight.

[DissedByBush]

29. Common sense

I let my 8 year-old shoot.

I would not let her shoot a fully automatic weapon.

Just not a chance.

It's too dangerous for exactly the reason this kid got killed.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. Gun shows are incredibly safe.

All of the guns are zip tied so they are inoperable and there are usually 2 cops for every 5 patrons.

[benEzra]

22. It wasn't a gun show, it was a live fire demonstration/expo

of Federally restricted machineguns, (badly) supervised by the local chief of police.

A gun show is a venue where (unloaded) guns are bought and sold, not a place where they are shot. Just like a boat show and a regatta are two different things.

[Callisto32]

24. I know, right,

since so many people are killed and maimed at gun shows and shoots all the time, right?

[SteveM]

26. Do you have any data/links to show "Gun Shows" are not safe? Thanks.

[kestrel91316]

3. "....donating $10,000 to children's charities as part of a deal settling criminal charges...."

I find this part unacceptable. Seriously. They bought their way out of a trial.

[Lurks Often]

30. The club did not put on the shoot

The gun club merely provided the range, they did not supply the guns, they did not supply the instructors. The gun club's SOLE involvement in this was to supply a range for the shoot to occur.




Edited for grammar

[lunasun]

9. sorry but gotta ask

Christopher lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he fired at a pumpkin at the Oct. 26, 2008, event.

Christopher's father was 10 feet behind him and reaching for his camera when his child fired.
The fair had promised in an advertisement that shooters would have certified instructors, but prosecutors said Christopher was supervised by Spano's uncertified 15-year-old son.

can anyone here even imagine stepping back 10 ft & letting their 8 yr shoot an Uzi on his own after being instructed briefly by a 15 yr old boy?? or is it just me who can not identify?????wtf

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. I've witnessed children that young fire machine guns.

They handled the weapons just fine. They were not micro uzi's though.
That was dumb and the instructor should have warned of the recoil and rate of fire.

[pipoman]

19. Sorry

but the instructor should never let that kid shoot that gun with a full magazine..2 rounds max..this was a senseless tragedy.

[Callisto32]

25. I may, depending on the child.

But I would DAMN sure be holding onto the thing myself.

Expecting a child to control the recoil of something an adult man could easily have trouble with is insane.

There is a lot of negligence in this story...

[DonP]

14. Wasn't that gun owned by the Chief of Police?

Or another law enforcement officer, IIRC?

And it wasn't really a gun show but some kind of fund raiser instead?