Would you let a child fire this 9 mm Uzi Micro submachine gun? The results could be fatal.

Can anyone imagine a more obvious recipe for disaster than allowing an 8-year-old boy to fire a submachine gun? Maybe it seems obvious to you, but it didn't to the father of Christopher Bizilj, of Ashford Connecticut, who stood by and watched as his son fired the Uzi. The recoil from the powerful weapon knocked the child backwards, and he accidently shot himself in the head fatally. In a second, a "family event" at a gun club became a disaster, but to anyone with sense it was a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, a child paid the price for adult stupidity.

Of course, no one expected Christopher Bizilj to die at the demonstration of the Uzi submachine gun. It happened at the Westfield (MA) Sportsman's Club on the second day of a two-day "Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Exposition" that had been advertised as a family event. It had been cosponsored by the Pelham, MA police chief, Edward B. Fleury, who has had little to say about the incident. According to Christopher's father, a physician and medical director of the emergency department at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, the boy had been eagerly awaiting the event. He allowed his son to fire the gun under adult supervision, and Christopher was not the only child who lined up to try out the Uzi. But he was the one to die. At the boy's funeral, his father said, "We cannot change the past. We cannot dwell on analysis, or 'what if.'"

It must be agony for parents to bury their 8-year old son, but if Dr. Bizilj doesn't want to dwell on analysis or "what if," somebody should. Why didn't the adults affiliated with the event recognize that the weapon was too powerful for young children to fire? Why didn't Dr. Bizilj, with his experience in trauma medicine, realize that it was dangerous for his son to fire the Uzi? Why didn't the Pelham police chief, with his experience of accidents and violent crime, have second thoughts about letting children participate in this event? What were these supposedly responsible people thinking of?

The 9 mm Micro Uzi machine gun is a compact fully automatic submachine gun that rapidly fires 9 mm rounds. It has a metal foldable stock (shown unfolded in the picture above). When the stock is folded, the Uzi looks like a pistol. The Uzi submachine gun is a weapon of war. It has no peaceful purpose. It doesn't belong at a so-called "family event" at a sportmen's club, anymore than you would bring it to a church picnic to try out when the kids get tired of playing horseshoes. This was an insanely stupid idea, and I hope that someone sues the Westfield Sportsman's Club for negligence. Given the comments that are showing up on most websites that mention the club, public opinion is against them. In fact, their own website has been taken down, so heaven only knows what was going on there. In law, negligence occurs when someone does something that a reasonably prudent person should know is likely to result in harm, and the harm actually happens. If the people from Westfield Sportsman's Club who sponsored and advertised this event didn't reasonably foresee that harm would occur if they let children fire a machine gun, they should have. In fact, even two members of the Westfield Sportsman's Club have publicly questioned the actions of the club. The Hampden County District Attorney is investigating whether criminal charges should be brought relating to the incident. All over the country, people are considering the Bizilj tragedy and wondering if it could have been avoided.

Naturally, there are gun advocates who will defend this insanity on the grounds that they have to defend all use of guns, even irresponsible use, to protect their rights. However, an article by one gun advocate, while hoping that the Bizilj tragedy would not result in more stringent gun laws and taking a "guns don't kill people, people kill people" stance, commented: "What appalls me about this incident is how anyone with any level of experience could allow a little kid with small hands and body to fire such a hard-to-control, powerful automatic weapon under any circumstances, legal or not!" That says it all. Now, what is anyone going to do about it?