In Case You Missed This... '8-Yr-Old Boy Shoots Self at Gun Show' - ABCNews [View all]

[WillyT]

8-Yr-Old Boy Shoots Self at Gun Show
By SARAH NETTER - ABCNews
Oct. 27, 2008

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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.

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.


Eight-year-old Christopher Bizilj accidentally shot
and killed himself Sunday with an Uzi submachine gun
while his father and a firearm instructor stood nearby.

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.

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Link: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6121915&page=1#.UA4QEmFDwrU