Boy, 8, shot to death in Mass. gun show accident

[SecularMotion]

Monday, October 27
WESTFIELD, Mass. (AP) — 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 yesterday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club, Police Lt. Lawrence Valliere said. Police identified the child today as Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn.

Christopher 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."


http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10827297

[stray cat]

1. Thats horrible - poor kid and family

[sickinohio]

2. Why would anyone allow an 8-year-old

to have a machine gun???

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Excellent question.

[katandmoon]

6. The pro-gun crowd wants to infect everybody with the gun sickness.

The younger the better. The price of an 8-year-old's life is a small price to pay to them. Guns, not children, are sacred to them.

[raimius]

14. "Gun sickness?"

I was unaware that owning a piece of machinery is now classified as an illness. Care to explain that one?


That incident is tragic. It is rather uncommon for a shooter to lose control of a firearm in that manner, though. I would have reservations about letting an 8 year old handle a machine gun, but it would be out of concern for OTHERS, not out of fear that the child would let the firearm rotate toward their head while holding down the trigger...that is rather unexpected.

[benEzra]

17. What's sick is using the tragic death of a little boy

What's sick is using the tragic death of a little boy---probably the first fatal accident involving a child and an NFA Title 2 machinegun in the last 50 or 75 years---to score cheap-shot points against DU'ers you disagree with. THAT is sick.

This was a tragedy all around.

And FWIW, that machinegun was as tightly controlled as a 105mm howitzer or shoulder-fired rocket launcher. It was NOT a NFA Title 1 civilian gun.

[SteveM]

19. And the vultures swoop in (nt)

[cabluedem]

27. Their church is the NRA gun show lobbys, where they train another generation of youths to kill...

with a gun..I cant even imagine an 8 year old with an Uzi in their hands instead of crayons.

[raimius]

29. Just wow...

That has to be one of the most uninformed, hateful things I have ever heard on this board (although I haven't been around very long to witness the absolute HATRED for anything involving firearms which some posters display).

Let's think about a few things:
There are roughly 80 million American gun owners and about 4 million NRA members. Is 5% considered a strong correlation?
How is shooting at a circular dot on a piece of paper training "another generation of youths to kill?" You would have a better argument in blaming video games for the prevalence of illegal drugs in America (and I'd chuckle at that one).
The inference of a religious status for the NRA is rather odd, in my opinion.

The death of an 8 year old boy is tragic, but why are you labeling 80 million Americans as pseudo-religious wannabe murderers? Do you hate people that much?
I thought liberalism was supposed to be tolerant, but when it comes to 2nd Amendment rights I don't see it. Shouldn't "tolerant liberal" be redundant, rather than a contradiction of terms?

[dairydog91]

32. Which part of the crowd are we talking about here?

I've never met an NRA member who'd consider this appropriate. Most actually understand that different firearms require different abilities, and so most young shooters (Myself included) start with shooting a .22LR rifle (Which kicks negligibly, and allows a shooter to learn good shooting skills before handling anything more severe). Automatic weapons are a class unto themselves, as a shooter acclimated to normal semi-auto fire will often be surprised by the sheer force of the sum of multiple recoils. I've only shot a couple of low-caliber (5.56mm) automatic rifles (At a firearms plant, supervised by a range instructor with decades of experience), and I was initially surprised by the force of 4-5 rounds accumulated recoil. Keep in mind, I was a reasonably athletic 20 year old young man, around 6'2", who could comfortably blast away with a 44Magnum shooting singlehandedly, and I was initially not in total control of the rifle (Muzzle climbed maybe 5-10 degrees, and my upper body was forced back). An Uzi, particularly a Micro version, is probably one of the hardest guns to control, as you must control it with a great deal of hand and arm strength. In simple terms, in this incident a numbnuts gave one of the hardest to control weapons available to someone with neither the experience nor the physical ability to handle it.

Now, hysterical comments asides, actual machineguns are very rare in America (Due to heavy federal regulation and registration). They're items found in the collections of collectors (Who must be able to afford costs that range from mid 4 digits to low 6 digits) or at machinegun shoots. Kids do not "find" these guns, they are given them by moron adults. Someone in this incident deserves jail time for criminal neglience. As to the ridiculous notion that gun owners are consciously selling kid's lives, this is stupid to the nth degree. A parent moronic enough to hand an SMG to a kid is probably also stupid enough to let that kid play with household cleaners, or "try" Vodka, or "experiment" with Daddy's power tools, or take the Harley out for a spin. You can't protect kids from parental idiocy by taking away only one of the inappropriate items that might be given to a child by a negligent parent/authority figure. Please, stop blaming the gun for the parent's vapid behavior, it lets the authority figures in this incident off the hook for some of the blame (Of which they deserve 100%).

[benEzra]

16. It wasn't the child's, or the parent's. The owner let the parent and child fire it

at a demo, and should either have not have let the child do so, or should have held it firmly instead of being "hands off"). A Micro Uzi is quite small, very light, and the child had neither the strength to prevent the muzzle climb, nor the experience to fire in short bursts. In short, this was a fatal error in judgement on the part of the owner and the parent.

[krispos42]

31. I wouldn't.

At eight, my kid will be shooting a bolt-action or lever-action .22. Mabye a .410 shotgun break-action.

There is a reason fully-automatic weapons (NOT so-called "assault weapons") are regulated so tightly... they are not discrimatory weapons. They are indiscriminate, like a land mine or artillery shell.

Non-fully-automatic weapons can only shoot a single shot with a pull of the trigger, so you aim for and in control of every single shot.

Full-auto stuff, not so much.


I've seen video footage of kids shooting tripod-mounted machine guns, which is much safer than some handheld submachine gun.

[Retired AF Dem]

57. How many 8 year olds have been killed in car accidents?

Parents should not allow kids to ride in cars.

[lapfog_1]

3. "you must be THIS tall to ..."

operate a fully automatic machine gun, especially a bottom heavy Uzi (kickback causes rotation around the center of gravity).

Whoever the parents are and the operators of the gun show might as well have just shot the 8 year old boy.

[bushisanidiot]

5. Prayers for the family. :(

I hope his parents now realize why so many march and protest against loose gun law language.

[SteveM]

20. Prayers for the family as well. And hope for getting facts straight:

Concerning "loose gun law language:" The ownership and use of FULL-AUTO weapons has been under strict regulation since 1935; there is nothing loose about the language. If you have a record of how many other people have been accidentally killed by use of a full-auto weapon, let's see it.

Concerning "why so many march and protest:" Since when? How many?

[AtheistCrusader]

7. What in the hell

Words fail me. An 8 year old? An Uzi? WTF

Even the 9mm has a strong kick. Might as well give him a MS 880 STIHL Magnum chainsaw, he'd control it about as well.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. An eight year old...

...operating an Uzi machine gun? And it resulted in a tragic accident?

Wow, what a shocking surprise. I mean it's not like he was only a few hours old and hadn't yet opened his eyes or anything. Who could have possibly anticipated some kind of mishap occurring when you hand over a loaded machine gun to an eight year old?

[cabluedem]

36. Only a dimwit would allow this. Hopefully the parent is in jail. nt

[rateyes]

9. Another example of how stupidity kills.

Adult supervision, my ass. Anyone who would hand an 8-year old an Uzi is no adult.

Tragic waste.

[Cronus Protagonist]

10. Darwin award

Goes double. Daddy reproduced and lost, and the boy doesn't even get to reproduce in the first place. I do feel sorry for the kid, though, for having lost the genetic lottery and getting that idiot as a father - double whammy - the kid never had a chance.

[cabluedem]

28. Nope. His pops, "Bubba-gum" was to busy teaching junior to use a machine gun...

Isn't there an age level for children to use a gun like this?

[krispos42]

30. They don't give Darwin Awards to 8-year-olds

Too young. You have to be a teenager, minimum, to get one.


In a similar fashion, the dad won't get one either unless he's sterile. If he's still fertile he hasn't taken himself out of the gene pool yet.

[kestrel91316]

11. Where was the responsible parent? I don't care what anybody says.

Uzis and SMALL CHILDREN don't mix.

BTW, that "certified instructor" needs to lose his certification. Immediately and permanently.

[jody]

12. Lots of stupidity to go around. Makes as much sense as letting an 8 yr old ride a motorcycle or ATV

or swim unattended in a home swimming pool or other dangerous activity.

WISQARS Unintentional Injury Deaths, United States 2005, All Races, Both Sexes Age 8

RANK
  1       Unintentional MV Traffic  120 
  2       Unintentional Drowning  24 
  3       Unintentional Fire/burn  22 
  4       Unintentional Other Land Transport  8 
  5       Unintentional Suffocation  8 
  6       Unintentional Pedestrian, Other  7 
  7       Unintentional Struck by or Against  5 
  8       Unintentional Firearm  4 
  9       Unintentional Fall  2 
  10      Unintentional Machinery  2 
  11      Unintentional Natural/ Environment  2 
  12      Unintentional Other Spec., classifiable  2 
  13      Unintentional Pedal cyclist, Other  2 
  14      Unintentional Other Transport  1 
  15      Unintentional Poisoning  1 
  16      Unintentional Unspecified  1 

[iverglas]

21. fascinating

15 Unintentional Poisoning 1

Of course, parents and, er, certified poison instructors hand bottles of poisonous substances to children and say "now be careful while you drink that" all the damned time, right?


6 Unintentional Pedestrian, Other 7

I wonder whether we could have an estimate of what proportion of children are pedestrians in the course of a day versus the proportion of children given Uzis to play with in the course of, oh, a decade.

I'd bet that the Uzi gets a somewhat higher kill rate than playing in traffic even.


2 Unintentional Drowning 24

Hmm. How many children go swimming how many times in the course of their childhood ... versus how many children get handed an Uzi to play with ...


Etc., etc., etc.

[milou]

52. Guess we need to ban planes too...

At least the kid with the Uzi didn't harm anyone else, don't know if you remember this...

Child pilot, 2 others die in crash
Jessica

April 11, 1996
Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EST

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (CNN) -- A 7-year-old girl's plane crashed into a residential area after taking off in a rainstorm Thursday morning, killing all three aboard, officials said.

There were no reports of injuries on the ground.

The child, Jessica Dubroff of Pescadero, California, was on a quest to become the youngest person ever to fly a plane across the United States and back. She was accompanied by her father, Lloyd, and flight instructor Joe Reid. (2.0M QuickTime movie)

...

[the_real_38]

26. Great point.

An 8-year old shouldn't be shooting an uzi - but 4 unintentional firearm deaths for a whole year is statistically insignificant.

[virginia mountainman]

13. That is actually the FIRST FATALITY, I have ever heard of at a gun range

Something most folks don't realize is that the Shooting Sports are SAFER to our children than practically all other youth sports.

We hear on the news regularly about kids dieing at football, Baseball, or Soccer practice. And as I said above, this is the FIRST I, have heard of.



Actually, this is the first time I had heard of Class III weaponry in an accident as well..

LOL Some of our more "delicate and naive" posters really have no idea what citizens legally own and fire....If they did, we would not even be talking about stupid assault rifle bans..

For example.....

20mm Hispano cannon, full auto... For those that don't know, the 20mm is FAR more powerful than the much smaller, 50 caliber "11mm"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc9E8_ZuESQ

Not to mention, the civilian owned, Anti tank rifles, and artillery..

57 MM Anti tank gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVais1ooSq4&feature=related

90mm Anti Tank gun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6fXNiRRJgg&feature=related

75MM Howitzer..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoMbtXMXOIw

Some of us on this forum, is so naive on guns and their owners, this post is intended as a service, to help, gentle viewer, to know that these things, ARE owned, and never misused.

[iverglas]

22. nice gratuitous sexploitation pic there

Here's one for you:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=10811f11-1908-4a94-8c27-bb16380ec29c

Published: Monday, August 18

EDMONTON - A man is dead after being shot at an incident at the Wild West Shooting Centre in West Edmonton Mall that police are calling non-criminal.

Police responded to the range about 4:30 p.m. Sunday after reports that a man had been shot. The man was participating in handgun shooting, said police.

Witnesses said the man crawled under the barrier that separates the shooters from the range. According to witnesses, someone shouted "Cease fire!" but the man was shot.

"At this point we don't believe that there was any safety concerns in relation to this," said Strang.

Police have identified the victim, but are not releasing the man's name. This is second time in 13 months that a man has been fatally shot at the shooting range.

Somehow I just find it non-credible that this only happens in Canada. Given the 9:1 population ratio, and the god knows what gun range ratio, and all.

... And why, lookie here.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/NEWS/80219010/0/SPECIALSECTS0204

February 19, 2008

POCONO TOWNSHIP (Pennsylvania) — Following Thursday’s shooting death of an instructor at the Sunset Hill Shooting Range, people are asking why the gun he was handling was loaded when it shouldn’t have been.

Police aren’t saying much on the investigation into the death of Russell Stephens Jr., 38, of Delaware Water Gap, except that it could be months before there’s any answer to that question.

http://www.modbee.com/1618/story/458313.html

last updated: October 10, 2008 07:27:55 AM

The widow of a man who was shot at the Old Fishermen's Club in July has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the club, the club's landlord and the man she says killed her husband.

Judith Herrmann of Modesto is asking for at least $25,000 in the July 13 death of her husband, William. She declined to comment for this story.

News of Herrmann's death reverberated through the U.S. sport shooting world because strict rules on ranges mean such accidents rarely happen.

... "He was showing the weapon to another club member when it went off," he said.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=5683472

Septembe 30, 2007 (WLS) -- An investigation has been launched into death of a Gary, Indiana reserve police officer. Kevin Weaver, 49, died at a gun range after he was shot accidentally.

Gary police officials say it was the first time in the 20-year history of the auxiliary police officer program that there has been an incident of this sort. Kevin Weaver was an exemplary cop, working an unpaid 40-hour shift. Authorities say his death looks to be the result of a terrible accident.

According to authorities, Gary Auxillary Police Officer Kevin Weaver died not at the hands of a gun-wielding suspect, but at the hands of one of his own.

... "We know an officer was turning to return to the firing line, and Officer Weaver came up and bumped him as he was turning, which caused him to fall back and the weapon discharged," said Cmdr. Sam Roberts of the Gary Police Department.

Of course there are rather numerous suicides at gun ranges in the US, including this one:

http://tallahassee.com/legacy/special/blogs/2007/04/shooting-range-siege-ends-in-death.html

Friday, April 13, 2007

TAMPA - A 10-hour hostage standoff at an indoor shooting range came to an abrupt end when the gunman killed himself early today, authorities said. None of the hostages were hurt.

Jeffrey Lane Dudney, 42, of Tampa, was already facing attempted murder charges and went to the shooting range Thursday afternoon intending to steal a firearm and flee the area, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said.

When someone confronted him, Dudney took five people hostage, including a woman who owned the shooting range in a heavily commercial area of busy Dale Mabry Highway, Gee said.

The gunman was often seen during the standoff holding a pistol to the head of hostages, Gee said. During negotiations with officers, he released two of them. Because of the number of guns and amount of ammunition inside, authorities chose to continue negotiating with Dudney instead of storming the building.

He killed himself at about 3 a.m. with a gunshot to the upper torso, Gee said.

I'm suspecting that firearms deaths in general just don't get the kind of media coverage in the US that they get in, say, Canada.

[slackmaster]

42. I've heard of two shooting deaths at shooting ranges in the San Diego area

Both were suicides by adults, who were first-time customers.

The ranges have all adopted policies not allowing gun rentals to first-time customers who arrive alone.

[RamboLiberal]

43. Local range last year - instructor killed by modern gatling gun

FRANKSTOWN — State police continue to investigate how a 36-year-old Hollidaysburg man was shot by a military-style Gatling minigun during a weapons exhibition Wednesday night.

Michael Duncan Kurty died after the Gatling gun, capable of firing thousands of rounds a minute, unintentionally went off at the Hollidaysburg Sportsmens Club, where attendees of a dinner and shoot, sponsored by Duncansville’s East Coast Gun Sales, were gathered.

Blair County Deputy Coroner Jeff Guyer said Kurty, who was shot through the right cheek, died instantly from the military-caliber bullet. The apparently accidental shooting took place in front of more than 100 people.

State police at Hollidaysburg spent Thursday at the scene with agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Army personnel from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The ATF and Army were called in because of the unusual and complex nature of the electrically powered Gatling gun.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/15269.html?nav=742

[Stryguy]

15. Oh Crap!!!!

An 8 year old kills/hurts himself with a Fully Automatic Uzi????

I better go get that switch blade knife back from my 6 year old and make sure my 10 year old is playing responsibly with those Claymore landmines I got him for his Birthday.

[benEzra]

18. The child wasn't playing with it. He was firing it under supervision at a range...

and those supervising didn't have their hands firmly on the gun like they should have, if they were going to allow him to fire it at all. An NFA Title 2/Class III restricted Micro Uzi is too small and light for a young child to fire on full auto unassisted; muzzle climb is quite forceful, and the child did not have the experience to fire in short bursts. He held the trigger down, and the gun rotated in his hands due to recoil until it was pointed at his head.

[cabluedem]

54. OK, you sound like you know this Uzi well so here is the question..

why didn't the parent or owner know what this weapon could do? After all they had to go through lots of gun laws, red-tape and money to own one, correct? Someone NEEDS to be prosecuted, period.

[jeepnstein]

56. I'll wait for a Grand Jury to decide...

on prosecution. What a mess.

I was once at a range, owned by the Federal Government, where officers tasked with protecting nuclear materials trained. I'm not talking about drums of waste, but nuclear material in it's finished state and ready for warheads. I found it odd that along the firing line there was a series of loops of chain. When I asked what they were for, a buddy responded that they were to keep the muzzles of certain weapons from climbing too far as they trained new operators in their use. Hmmm.... makes you wonder about things, don't it?

I also was at a police range where an officer was firing a MAC 11 for the first time. It was a handful and I can say I never care to shoot one again. One fellow, an accomplished shooter, tried it and wound up doing considerable damage to the range as the muzzle climbed. It would take quite a few hours to learn to shoot such a firearm safely and accurately.

This experience leads me to believe the Range Master at the machine gun shoot in Mass. needs to be taken out and horse whipped.

[iverglas]

23. in what bizarro universe

is it thought reasonable, let alone is it legal, to put something like this into the hands of an 8-year-old?

Under any circumstances. Ever.

"Accidental" my eye.

Criminally negligent, at the least.

[jeepnstein]

33. Gotta agree with you there.

I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time, but even letting an eight year old shoot something like that had failure all over it from the beginning. Especially at an open range. I'm waiting until I read a clear description of the shooting before I say much else.

I hate public ranges. They're the best place to get shot you ever saw.

[cabluedem]

37. That wasnt a Redryder BB gun this parent handed to his now dead child!

I can't believe someone can be this stupid.

[SteveM]

24. Correction: the event was a "Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo"...

not a "gun show" as commonly described by gun-control advocates. Events involving the firing of machine guns are extremely rare.

[iverglas]

25. so

that makes the kill ratio at such events even higher then ..

[gorfle]

39. And yet

that makes the kill ratio at such events even higher then ..

And yet it is still so low as to be statistically irrelevant.

[Scout]

40. don't you think that's pretty fucking rude?

"statistically irrelevant"

i'm sure that's very comforting to the families of the dead

[gorfle]

45. rude

I try not to project feelings onto facts.

[logjon]

55. Speaking of the family

Whoever was chaperoning this child bears part of the responsibility in this situation. This is just what the gun grabbers need.

[JonQ]

60. If it's being used as an emotional argument

to drum up support for anti-gun legislature I think it's fair to respond with factual evidence. A child being killed is of course tragic, but that doesn't mean that we have to respond with draconian anti-gun measures.

Every time a child drowns due to lack of supervision around a swimming pool we generally blame the parents, not the swimming pools and call on greater parental supervision, not a nationwide ban on large bodies of standing water.

[cabluedem]

38. A machine gun shoot? Oh well that makes it all better now, right?

:puke:

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cabluedem]

46. What lie? A "gun fair"? BTW thats what the AP story called it. The boy is dead, and he shouldn't be....

Thats why many people claim that people who own guns seem to not care much when
someone is killed by one, as if it had nothing do to with the culture they live in.

Where is the responsibility?

Not one bit seen here!

[jody]

47. "Not one bit seen here!" I read several posts expressing concern over a tragic accident. I also read

several posts trying to blame guns when in fact it was people who caused the accident by their negligence.

My personal opinion is an accident occurred that could have easily been avoided but I don't believe it is any more tragic than a seven year old drowning two years ago, next door in a family pool when over 20 adults were partying.

In the drowning case, after a few minutes my daughter a nurse visiting me for the holiday, saw the panic and rushed over to offer assistance.

She gave CPR and the young boy lived but it could easily have been another tragic death.

Guns and pools don't cause accidents, people do.

[cabluedem]

48. Nonsense! The child could have shot others as well with a machine gun..

last time I checked pools dont kill people hundreds of yards away.

[Name removed]

49. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[iverglas]

50. jody sees things that are not there

I also read several posts trying to blame guns when in fact it was people who caused the accident by their negligence.

The only inference is that there are psychotics posting in this thread. People who ascribe motives and actions to inanimate objects.

I actually haven't seen such people or their posts here. Can someone tell me how to adjust my settings so I can see what I'm missing?

[SteveM]

51. There are shows and there are shows, right?

Just as with the early days of the Democratic Party's flirtation with gun control, confusing assault rifles (FULL-AUTO capable) with "assault weapons" (semi-auto carbines of moderate power) to dishonestly push policy, so it is now with "gun shows:" Why, just as we were getting used to the cryptic definitions of the gun-controllers viz-a-viz one "gun show," up pops another -- where innocent kids are killed by... by... MACHINE GUNS!

Don't step in your own puke on the way out.

[jody]

53. SteveM, there you go again bringing facts to an hysterical, emotional, shouting contest. n/t

[dairydog91]

34. With every action, there is an opposite overreaction...

State Representative Michael Costello, the Newburyport Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said yesterday that he plans to draft a bill that would ban anyone younger than age 21 from firing an automatic weapon.

"This isn't a knee-jerk reaction; it's a common sense reaction," he said. "We should take swift action to provide some reasonable restrictions on this type of unreasonable practice. It's almost indescribable that within a year of leaving a booster seat, an 8-year-old can be holding a submachine gun."

Full Story
You know, I'd be a lot more understanding if the age cutoff was 16 or so (18 perhaps); 21 enters the height of silliness. Thousands of 18 year olds, three years younger than 21, enter military training every year and yet manage not to shoot themselves in the head with their own guns. Plenty of people 18 and over are physically capable of handling weapons (Some 18-21s aren't, but I'd bet you could find many over 21s who couldn't control such a weapon either). Basically, once you are 18, you're a legal adult, and as such you are not a "child". You should be expected to be mature enough to evaluate whether or not you can handle a gun, and not treated like a baby.

[jody]

35. "anyone younger than age 21"! Lots of kids in Iraq/Afghanistan will be happy. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

44. Pelham's police chief, who ran Westfield gun show where boy was killed, keeping low profile

....The man who organized Sunday's machine gun shoot and firearms expo where an 8-year-old boy was accidentally shot was nowhere to be found in this town of about 1,400 where he's served as chief law enforcement officer since 1991.

Fleury is also the owner of COP Firearms & Training, which co-sponsored the event at the Westfield Sportsman's Club where Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., died after accidentally shooting himself in the head. Over the course of his career as chief, Fleury has taught gun safety classes in town and also conducted a gun safety class for kindergartners at the town's elementary school.

In 2003, Fleury wrote a letter of apology to residents after he discharged a loaded rifle during a firearms safety class. Selectmen had met in executive session to talk about the discharge but refused to release information about it. They said only the situation had been "handled." The chief pledged he would take additional safety steps to ensure such an incident did not recur.

The sportsman's club, in cooperation with Fleury's COP Firearms & Training, which maintains a post-office box address in Amherst, has held the expo since 2002. It has been well attended, drawing young and old alike.

"We let people have an outlet to see and to fire some of the guns that they've seen in the movies, or on the History Channel, or other events that involve firearms," Fleury said at the 2005 show. "People get to go in line with an instructor, learn to fire guns and enjoy them in a safe environment, where they get to do one thing: shoot pumpkins."

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/pelhams_police_chief_who_ran_w.html?category=Deaths+category=Westfield

YouTube of their 2006 machine gun shoot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_p7jVVewMw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T974j6nujT8 plus several more if you search.

[biermeister]

58. update

Police chief, gun club indicted in boy's Uzi death

Dec 4, 11:55 AM (ET)

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A police chief and a gun club in western Massachusetts have been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun at a gun fair.

Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury owns the COP Firearms & Training, which sponsored the gun show last month in Westfield.

Christopher Bizilj (bah-SEAL') of Ashford, Conn., shot himself in the head when he lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin.

The Westfield Sportsman's Club and two other men also were indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges.

Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said Fleury and the club also face four charges of furnishing a machine gun to a minor.

Fleury and the club did not immediately return calls for comment.

[gorfle]

59. Thanks for the update.

Clearly there was negligence and I'm glad to see the wheels of justice turning.