I heard this story earlier today on the radio show I listen to, and was absolutely disgusted by it. I can't believe that people still think that we should loosen our gun laws.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Three men, including a small-town police chief, were indicted Thursday on involuntary manslaughter counts in the gun-fair death of an 8-year-old who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi that a prosecutor said he never should have been allowed to handle.
The club where the fair was held also was charged. The fair had promised shooters would have certified instructors in an advertisement, but District Attorney William Bennett said the child, Christopher Bizilj, was supervised by an uncertified 15-year-old boy.
Bizilj, of Connecticut, lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin Oct. 26 at a Firearms Expo in Massachusetts.[...]
Fleury and the club also were indicted on four counts each of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. A conviction on each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, up to $10,000 in fines and the loss of a firearms license for at least 10 years.
Bennett said prosecutors know of at least four children, including Bizilj, who fired automatic weapons at the fair. He added that Fleury had wrongly assured Guiffre and Spano that it was legal for children to use the Uzi under Massachusetts law.
"A Micro Uzi is made by and for the Israeli Armed Forces and is intended to meet the operational needs of Israeli Special Forces," Bennett said, noting the weapon has a rate of fire of 1,700 rounds per minute. "It is not a hunting weapon."[...]
The machine gun shoot drew hundreds of people to the sporting club's 375-acre compound. An advertisement said it would include machine gun demonstrations and rentals and free handgun lessons.
The ad also said children under 16 would be admitted free, and both adults and children were offered free .22-caliber pistol and rifle shooting.
Christopher's father was 10 feet behind him and reaching for his camera when the child fired the weapon.
I can't believe that people (that anyone) thought it was okay to put a machine gun in the hands of an eight-year-old child. I can't believe that anyone thought it was okay to put a fifteen-year-old child in charge of the machine guns. I can't believe that anyone thinks it's necessary for an average citizen needs a machine gun.
Can you imagine how that poor father feels? According to the story, he let his child use the Uzi because he had been 'assured it was safe' by the workers at the gun show, being told that it would be safer because of its diminutive size. And there he was, getting out his camera (no doubt to snap a picture of his young boy 'shootin' the gun') and instead witnessed the horror of watching his own child take a bullet in the head.
Our gun laws are an embarrassment. That we still hold these gun shows (or that we allow assault rifles and automatic weaponry to be sold at all) sickens me. We need, as a country, to seriously re-evaluate our gun laws and act accordingly. Hightened restrictions, longer waiting periods, age requirements - these are only a start to what needs to be done. Surely (just as the right to free speech or religion) our right to bear arms must contain some caveats and restrictions.