My heart goes out to the family.  Link

WESTFIELD, Mass. --  An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

The boy lost control of the weapon while firing it Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club, Police Lt. Lawrence Valliere said.

The boy was with a certified instructor and "was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury," a police statement said. Police called it a "self-inflicted accidental shooting."

The victim was taken to Baystate Medical Center where he died. His name was not released.

Although the death appears to be an accident, police and the Hampden district attorney's office were investigating, officials said.

The club said on its Web site that the event, run in conjunction with C.O.P Firearms and Training, is "all legal and fun." People will be allowed to fire weapons at vehicles, pumpkins and other targets, it said.

Officials with the private club and the firearms group could not be reached for comment. A message left on a club answering machine was not returned. The C.O.P. group's machine clicked off without taking a message.
 

The sportsman's club was founded in 1949 and describes itself on its Web site as an organization that promotes "the interest of legal sport with rod, gun, and bow and arrow, both directly and through training."

It has eight firing ranges as well as archery and fishing facilities located on 375 acres in Westfield, about 100 miles west of Boston.

Follow up information, the comments at the bottom are what one would expect.

Follow up information, the comments at the bottom are what one would expect.

By GEORGE GRAHAM
ggraham@repub.com

WESTFIELD - Police have identified the 8-year-old boy who died after accidentally shooting himself Sunday with an automatic weapon as Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn.

The accident which occurred about 2 p.m. at the Westfield Sportsman's Club on Furrowtown Road, remains under investgation, Westfield Police Lt. Hipolito Nunez said Monday.

Witnesses told police the boy lost control of a fully automatic UZI he was shooting under the supervision of range officers at the club "when the self-inflicted accidental shooting occurred," police said in a statement.

He was taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield with serious head injuries. Police announced early Sunday evening that he had died.

Though Westfield police said, "it appears the incident was purely accidental," a combined investigation of local police and the office of Hampden County District Attorney William M. Bennett is underway.

"There's an investigation going on now involving both Westfield police and the state police assigned to my office," Bennett said Sunday night.

Nunez said the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also joined the investigation.

Asked to comment on the advisability of an 8-year-old shooting an automatic weapon, Bennett said, "Once we have more information on what happened and how it happened, we'll be in a position to make public statements (on the incident)."

Efforts to reach club officers for comment Sunday were unsuccessful.

Witnesses said the boy "was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury," police said in the statement they released.

He was conscious and lying on the ground at the shooting range with a wound to the right side of his head when police and emergency medical technicians arrived at the scene, police said.

After first aid was administered, the youth, accompanied by his father, was taken to the hospital, police said.

The size of UZIs vary. Police did not say which model of the weapon the boy was firing.The weapon was originally designed for use by the Israeli military.

Ashford is about 29 miles east Hartford.

The Westfield Sportsman's Club, in association with COP Firearms & Training of Amherst, was conducting a machine gun shoot and firearms exposition this weekend, according to its promotional material for the event.

The advertisement includes the information that, "You will be accompanied to the firing line with a Certified Instructor to guide you."

Attendees under the age of 16 were admitted free, and free .22-caliber pistol and rifle shooting for adults and kids was offered, according to the promotional material.

The sportsman's club is a private, nonprofit organization incorporated in 1949 that has 375 acres with facilities that include eight firing ranges, as well as facilities for archery and fishing. As of July, it had nearly 1,200 members.

During a tour of the club in July, its officers pointed out the care taken to ensure safety at the firing ranges.

COP Firearms & Training operates machine gun shoots and provides firearms training and sales, as well as gunsmithing and other services.



-T.

While this is a tragic event, this line from the story irritates me immensely:
"Asked to comment on the advisability of an 8-year-old shooting an automatic weapon..."

Well...what about the advisability of an 8 year old riding a motorcycle?  (Time to ban those Honda ads).  Or swimming?  Or playing sports?  An 8-year old can severely hurt themselves walking down the stairs.

I know of a girl who paralyzed at 8 years old from a gymnastics accident.

Accident - no matter how tragic - happen.  Nothing can heal the pain this family must be experiencing but the continued demonization of inanimate objects and voluntary pursuits is ludicrous.

I personally knew a kid back in the 80s who rolled an ATC without a helmet, and was killed instantly, but they didn't ban ATCs.
This is an enormous tragedy that will be used by the anti-rights crowd to go after our most endangered firearms - NFA. And thanks to NFA '34, they know where they are, too. If BO makes president, expect them to disappear first.

Karma points for you Skunk.

Like I said, someone F'd right up.


-T.

I get a feeling that the first to get blamed will be the UZI.  Even though it apparently served its function.  Adults are at fault for this tragic accident and I agree with the "letting a child drive a motorcycle" comparison.

That kid should have been shooting a red ryder or a .22

I read some more details on Fox today.  The weapon was, as I suspected, a Micro Uzi.  The barrel is short enough for a child to inadvertantly point it at his own head as the weapon climbs in recoil.

Dad was standing ten feet away taking a picture.  Who knows where the "certified instructor" was.  Possibly his attention was divided between multiple shooters. My rule when it comes to shooting with children is one supervising adult per shooting child.  I don't even take both kids to range at the same time anymore because I can't focus on one at the expense of the other and I cannot allow my attention to wander, even for a split second, from the child holding the gun. 

I can remember sitting in my grandfather's lap, steering his 1976 Delta '88 down a turnpike in Indiana when I was about eight years old.  It was a great experience.  That car later became my first car.

But while my hands were on the steering whell, so were his.  And his foot was on the accelerator.  What those men did was the equivalent of letting the boy drive the car down the turnpike while they were sitting in the passenger seat.