Top Cop Indicted In Boy's Uzi Shooting

Manslaughter Charges For Mass. Police Chief Who Sponsored Show Where 8-Year-Old Shot Himself In Head

(AP)  A police chief whose company sponsored a gun fair and two other men have been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an 8-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself in the head with an Uzi at the gun fair.

The Westfield Sportsman's Club also faces the manslaughter charge in the Oct. 26 death of Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., who lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun as it recoiled while he was firing at a pumpkin.

His father was 10 feet behind him and reaching for his camera when the child fired the weapon. Though the show promised supervision from a certified instructor, Christopher was being helped by a 15-year-old boy at the time, District Attorney William Bennett said Thursday.

Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury owns the COP Firearms & Training, which sponsored the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club.

Two other men, Carl Guiffre of Hartford, Conn., and Domenico Spano, of New Milford, Conn., also were indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges. They brought the automatic weapon to the show, after assurances from Fleury that it was legal for children to use it under Massachusetts law, Bennett said.

"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 round per minute. "It is not a hunting weapon."

Fleury and the club also were indicted on four counts each of furnishing a machine gun to a minor. Bennett said prosecutors know of at least four children, including Christopher, who fired the automatic weapons. The club faces a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation.

Thomas Drechsler, an attorney for the club, said it continues to extend its "deepest sympathy" to the Bizilj family, but denies any wrongdoing. He said neither the club nor any member gave the Uzi to Christopher or any children, and weren't in the immediate area when the accident happened.

"The club is disappointed by the indictment," he said. "The club's intention is to plead not guilty and the club denies they participated in any criminal act."

Fleury, Guiffre and Spano did not immediately return calls for comment.

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.

"It's all legal & fun - No permits or licenses required!!!!" reads the ad, posted on the club's Web site.

"You will be accompanied to the firing line with a Certified Instructor to guide you. But You Are In Control - "FULL AUTO ROCK & ROLL," the ad said.

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.

Bennett said Christopher's father, Charles Bizilj, selected the compact weapon for his 4-foot-3, 66-pound son to fire after he was assured it was safe. The father was not charged because he was a layman and based his decision on information from others who should have known it was too dangerous, Bennett said.

Bizilj has said his son had experience firing handguns and rifles but the gun show was his first time with an automatic weapon.

The family did not immediately return a call for comment.

"Although it might appear a heavier or longer weapon would be more dangerous, the small size of the weapon together with the rapid rate of fire made it more likely that an 8 year old would lose control and the muzzle of the weapon would come close to his face, which is what happened here," he said.

The 15-year-old boy who was supervising Christopher with the Uzi will not be charged, Bennett said.

Fleury has been on sick leave since the accident, according to Kim Leahey, administrative aide for the Pelham Board of Selectmen.

Leahey said the board would have no statement on the indictment until it consults its attorneys.

Fleury is one of two full time officers in Pelham. In a statement issued shortly after the accident, the board said Fleury's company was a "purely personal pursuit" and not subject to their approval.

[nodemotwit]

Blogments from liberals in an article about a police chief facing gun-related manslaughter charges:

Other than the police ..., no one needs a gun in a civilized society.
Posted by excoachken

Armed citizens represent a danger to any society unless they are part of ... law enforcement.
Posted by truthrocks (aka Schoollord aka ad nauseam ... How many times do you get kicked off a board for abuse before your banned for life ?)

But, as a law-abiding gun owner, I would like to see the access to both firearms and ammunition by criminals and the mentally unstable minimized.

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

Personally, I''d like to see the Firearm part of the ATF take on some responsibilities that are similar to the Center of Disease Control

(CDC). In the latter case, when someone contracts a population threatening disease (eg: tuberculoses), the CDC is, by law, notified by medical practitioners then acts A.R. to prevent the spread to the rest of the population. So, for the ATF, this would mean that :

** Medical practitioners would be required, by law, to report mentally unstable patients to the ATF in every case that they are deemed a threat to themselves or their family or the general population.

** The Armed services would be required, by law, to report any discharge from the service for serious mental problems.

Similarly, given the youth of many of these perps, a special case

needs to be made wrt juvenile criminal records, specifically:

** Juvenile violent offenses would, by law, be reported to the ATF,

and considered by the ATF until the age of 25, after which those records would be purged, unless those individuals developed an adult rap sheet involving more violent offenses by age 25.

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

THEN, the ATF, firearm dealers and gun show promoters would need to modernize their equipment such that both firearm and ammunition purchases are vetted by the ATF, online, w/128 bit encryption (ie: same security as CC purchases).

And for those conservatives worried about the ATF tracking ammunition purchases, every purchasers name/address could be submitted by the gun shops computer along with a pool of randomly picked local state residents, with the ATF computer on the other end quickly (less that 1 second) providing an electronic thumbs up/down for all of them, then the gun shops computer would filter out all but the intended buyer. If the ATF were to track in this scenario then it would appear, over time, that 100% of the states adult residents are purchasing ammunition.


Since we give medical data to the CDC to protect the general populace I do not think it is as big stretch to give similar data to the ATF to, again, protect the general populace.

=======================

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

Additionally, the ATF needs to set national standards within which the state governments can restrict the parameters of firearm ownership AND interstate transportation for travel/vacation purposes.

** The former: To avoid DC-like scenarios, where self defense becomes a non-option. Truly self-defense threatening restrictions, like requiring a firearm to be disassembled and scattered into 4 corners of a house in individually locked containers, or requiring a special tool to change a clip, like in CA, would be illegal per Federal law.

** The latter: To avoid the imbecilic hodge-podge of different state firearm transportation rules across the US.


Finally, the ATF could be empowered to take steps to make it more costly for individuals w/a history of violent misdemeanor convictions (but no felonies) to LEGALLY (key word) acquire guns. For example, for a period of time (5yrs ?) after their most recent violent misdemeanor conviction they could be required to adhere to NFA-like requirements (mug shot, prints, gun tax, gun registration, interstate transportation restrictions, etc.). That would be a way to try and dissuade these individuals from proceeding onto violent felony infractions, and make it easier to ID the ones that do. But to thwart the inevitable vindictive spousal units associated w/US divorce you would need some stiff penalties for staged events leading to false convictions.

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)


But this only addresses part of the problem. Some other aspects are that :

** In certain states, liberals encourage illegal immigration and, by default, the illegal documentation industries that enable the former, and therefore the ''drivers license as ID'' for gun/ammunition purchases, as vetted in such an ATF system/responsibility upgrade as outlined above, would be much less robust. For this reason, National ID or similar protocols may be required.

** In certain states, human life has become too cheap. For example, the rap sheet of the perp Arthur Mann, who got life (2-28-08) in GA for shooting his ex-girlfriend, in public, shows that he was previously released after serving only FOUR years of a pathetic 10yr sentence for a prior murder in FL.

www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/06/shooter.suspect/index.html?iref=newssearch

I do not know if this is due to the liberal anthem of the ''perp is the victim'', or neocons who are too cheap to push for execution-or-life incarceration for murder, or maybe both, but FOUR years for murder ??
And even when these murderers are condemned to life in prison, what are they faced with ?

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

A lifetime of :
__free medical care,
__free food
__bed with fresh linen
__air conditioning and heat
__exercise, and
__reading materials.

All at taxpayer expense.
Wow.
I bet Arthur Mann was in that GA courtroom, just begging for the death penalty.

(As a side note, why is it OK to use DNA evidence to free a death row inmate, but not OK to use DNA evidence to put someone on death row ? And if DNA evidence can accelerate someone off death row quickly (and rightly so), why couldnt it also accelerate their execution, especially when multiple witness to the crime are also involved ? ).

** In certain states, conservatives have implemented what are known as Project Exile laws (eg: VA). Specifically, felons are already prohibited by Federal law from possessing firearms (which, of course, does not prevent them from doing so when they leave prison, eg: Arthur Mann), but, with Project Exile, a felon even being caught jaywalking while in possession of a firearm will result in a 5yr incarceration w/o parole. This should be made into a Federal law applicable to all states, whether the sates want it or not, but it would have to be prosecuted in Federal courts to not financially burden states.

=======================

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

This would still leave states to restrict citizen carry laws off their property, outside of their autos, as the state sees fit. Keep in mind though, that still would leave the looney left entities to make their childish gun laws, like requiring law abiding gun owners to transport their firearms outside their homes in a locked container with the word ''GUN'' in big white letters on the case (eg: Boulder, CO, Jan 17, 2001). Presumably this was so that their non-gun owning neighbors could be alerted to such a heinous threat so that they could start running around their home interiors, in circular desperation, hands flailing in the air, shrieking, until their law abiding but obviously evil gun-owning neighbor drove out of sight.

=======================

Otherwise, I have seen prior posts mentioning 30,000 US citizens killed by guns every year. This is true, for 2004, but only to the extent that well over half of them are suicides. Liberals would have you believe that this group of suicide-by-gun individuals posses a unique genetic trait, such that if they do not have a gun then they will not commit suicide, EVER. Here is the actual CDC US mortality data for 2004:

By gun:
Suicide ........- 16,750
Homicide .......- 11,624
Accident .......- 649
Undetermined ...- 235

By other than gun:
Suicide ........- 15,689
Homicide .......- 5,733
Accidents ......- 111,363

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

By Accident other than gun:
Auto/Truck/etc .- 48,053
Falls ..........- 18,807
Drowning .......- 3,308
Fire/Smoke .....- 3,229
Poisoning ......- 20,950
Unspecified ....- 17,016

www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_19.pdf

Since almost 15,700 other individuals managed to commit suicide W/O a gun, liberals will have to provide genetic proof that these 16,750 individuals are a genetically unique group, somehow predisposed to ''Suicide-by-gun-or-Live''. Since they cant, I submit that common sense dictates otherwise, which leaves the honest number of 12,500, not 30,000.

So if you are worried about gun homicide you are over 4X more likely to die in a car accident than by gun homicide.
And if you are worried about a gun accident you are 5X more likely to die in a fire accident, 32X more likely to die of a poisoning accident, and 74X more likely to die in a car accident than by a gun accident.

=======================

(cont)

[nodemotwit]

(cont)

But, that being said, I do not see why some common sense steps, possibly those outlined above, could not be taken to restrict access to both firearms and ammunition by criminals and the mentally unstable. The only problem is that all of this would require our liberal, conservative and independent representatives to come together and make it happen. Seeing all the other un-enforced laws they are already collectively responsible for, Im not holding my breath.

[mrkuren]

Abrame: Not all Canadians are anti-gun. But most of us are anti-let-kids-shoot-themselves-in-the-face. I rather enjoyed that posting about the worlds strongest rifle though, as there was no-one getting shot in the face. As for your comments about harper, I, and a large portion of Canada are eager to see this man leave. You, being and obvious repug, should love this guy. He''s a borderline neocon. Thank you however, for trying to argue your point with grace. Your failure to actually do so just strengthens my case. I actually feel sorry for you, its like trying to argue with a moody four year old.

[hailstorm-harry]

Darwin Award goes to the father. You have to be mentally retarded to give an 8 year old kid any kind of firearm, much less a fully automatic machine gun.

[justicelane]

So here''s a question. If guns kill people, you know all of these gun related deaths, then did spoons make Rosie O''Donnell fat? Oh I know! Bleach make Brittney stupid!!! That''s it! Guns don''t kill people, people do.

[hologram5]

@truthrocks:
Dude, you need to go back under the rock you crawled out from under. I don''t own a gun but still see the necessity of a militia, keeps the government honest.

[jmagarotz]

Dear Idiots:
Comments like this one give me hope. Yes, there is some intelligence out there. Thank you wtcmedic911.

This comment area is about the article which is improper supervision of a firearm and the tragic death of a child. It was not the guns fault of course but lack of oversight by the sponsers.

Posted by wtcmedic911 at 09:13 AM : Dec 05, 2008

[wtcmedic911]

Dear Idiots:
This comment area is about the article which is improper supervision of a firearm and the tragic death of a child. It was not the guns fault of course but lack of oversight by the sponsers. This comment area is not about bike helmets, suicides, hygene. In fact ABRAME do you have A.D.D?

[irreverent1-2009]

Gone are the days of starting off with a Red Ryder.

[jmagarotz]

No it''s a lie. Firearms in civilian hands stop criminal activity 1.2 to 1.5 million times a year. Most times without fireing a shot.
You and your ilk can''t see past your hatred, be it of an object or one who disagrees with your point of view. Your only recourse is to make up lies and insist they they''re the truth. Most of you are bullies and you fear what all bullies fear someone who might have superior force. As a former LEO I have met meny like you and you''re all cowards. Every stinking one of you.

I did. But while guns are used to save 250 lives per year guns are used to kill 30,000. While guns are used attempt to stop 82,000 crimes per year (mostly against unarmed criminals) they are used to commit 1.7 million crimes. Guns are more a nuisance than a benefit. That''''s a fact!~


Posted by truthrocks at 10:43 PM : Dec 04, 2008

[ffoulkes-2009]

Criminals are armed citizens and they are not the military. There are armed citizens who are cowards and they are not the military. Armed citizens represent a danger to any society unless they are part of the military or law enforcement. Your military dreams are base on fantasies like your stats!~

Posted by truthrocks at 10:20 PM : Dec 04, 2008
____________
Armed citizens are the militia. This is in the Constitution to protect our nation from our own government in case of a Castro, Hitler, etc. coming into power. Every Able-bodied man was REQUIRED to maintain comparable firearms and ammo to what the military possessed in colonial times.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Are you saying that there''''s no way a gun could be taken away from a marine? I''''ll say it could be very difficult, depending on the marine that is, but NOT impossible!~

Posted by truthrocks at 10:16 PM : Dec 04, 2008
____________
Oh...thought you meant disarming him BEFORE he shot you dead.
----------------------

[docpeter1953]

A vigorous hand wash or shower could cause a person to be less judgmental.

A new study, set for publication in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science, reveals that when a person feels physically clean, he or she cuts others more moral slack...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/li
vescience/... HkRPGUZrr7sF

Posted by Abrame at 03:40 AM : Dec 05, 2008
_____________

Don''t have any clue how this comment relates to this article, but it does explain why I -at least try to be- am very nonjudgemental.

And all the time I thought my frequent hand washing was only good for my OCD -can''t stand having my hands dirty, had to quit being a mechanic because of this.