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Pariforma (pariforma) wrote in unfunnybusiness,
@ 2008-10-27 16:29:00

Shoot at fun stuff we can't print here!

Grieving father says he gave his son, 8, permission to fire Uzi.

Dr. Charles Bizilj stood 10 feet behind his son this weekend at a "Machine Gun Shoot" in Westfield, where the third grader aimed an Uzi at a pumpkin in the distance.

As Bizilj reached for his camera, the boy clutched the gun in his arms and squeezed the trigger. The Uzi flipped backwards and 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj fatally shot himself in the head....

"I gave permission for him to fire the Uzi,” Bizilj said. “I watched several other children and adults use it. It’s a small weapon, and Christopher was comfortable with guns. There were larger machine guns with much more recoil, and we avoided those.”

To quote the Emperor Claudius, quoting Augustus, words fail me.

Unless the sound of someone retching counts as a word.

(Post a new comment)

	jkefka 2008-10-27 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	GIP. I got nothin else. (Reply to this)

	hyaenid 2008-10-27 10:28 pm UTC (link)
	Whaaaaat? My uncle was in the Marines and he told me he was trained to not use machine guns very often because it's hard for a 200-pound man in excellent health to control them. How in the hells is an 8-year-old boy supposed to control a.... what. I mean, what. Jesus. (Reply to this)(Thread)

eleutheria
2008-10-27 11:14 pm UTC (link)

It's likely not to be a machine gun (i.e. a full-auto gun). Most Uzis sold in the US are semi-auto, which makes it like any other shoot-one-round-at-a-time rifle. Still, I've shot one, and it's a heavy gun and I never liked it because I found it difficult to manage the grip safety (which you have to depress to fire it) and not fuck up my aim. Can't imagine a kid, with a kid's small hands, being able to manage it at all. My husband learned to shoot at 6 years old, but I'm pretty sure he was only shooting .22s for quite some time.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

hyaenid, 2008-10-28 03:24 am UTC

freezer, 2008-10-28 10:23 am UTC

pariforma, 2008-10-28 02:51 pm UTC

kuromitsu, 2008-10-28 04:08 pm UTC

tachikoma01, 2008-10-28 08:01 pm UTC

	caitiedid 2008-10-27 10:44 pm UTC (link)
	... (Reply to this)

issendai
2008-10-27 11:31 pm UTC (link)

Can someone who's more familiar with guns explain the physics of this accident to me? I was under the impression that by the time the recoil hit, the bullet was already going so fast that it had exited the gun, which is why it's acceptable to let your hand move to absorb the recoil. The article seems to be saying that the kid fired the gun, the recoil turned the gun so it pointed at his head, and then the bullet exited the gun.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	anonyrat 2008-10-27 11:35 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I don't know shit about guns, but uzis are auto-fire weapons and auto-fire weapons keep firing as long as you have your finger on the trigger. It seems very easy to have it keep firing in a direction you don't intend if you lose control of it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

issendai, 2008-10-27 11:41 pm UTC

	the__ivorytower 2008-10-27 11:49 pm UTC (link)
	facepalms Wrrrry? (Reply to this)

	anarchicq 2008-10-28 12:01 am UTC (link)
	Dr. Charles Bizilj stood 10 feet behind his son this weekend at a "Machine Gun Shoot" in Westfield, where the third grader aimed an Uzi at a pumpkin in the distance. Dr. Charles Bizilj Dr. Charles Bizilj.... DOCTOR! HOW COULD THIS MAN BE SO STUPID?!? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	unseelie 2008-10-28 05:45 am UTC (link)
	Q: What do you call the guy who graduates from medical school LAST IN HIS CLASS? A: Doctor. =\| (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

At our uni anyway -

notbulgarian, 2008-10-28 12:30 pm UTC

	drakyndra 2008-10-28 02:30 pm UTC (link)
	You can get the title "Doctor" without medical training if you have a PhD. Which can be in entirely theoretical topics. Still stupid beyond reason, and this is coming from someone whose dad used to leave a loaded shotgun next to the back door. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aristaea, 2008-10-28 08:59 pm UTC

(no subject) - redwarrior, 2008-10-28 09:52 pm UTC

jupiterpluvius, 2008-10-29 03:25 am UTC

witty
2008-10-28 02:09 am UTC (link)

I heard this on the radio this morning, and until I heard that it happened in public (at a "pumpkin shoot"), I had no idea that Uzis were legal in this state.

Because it is an UZI. For fuck's sake.

I also had no idea that it was legal for a child under 14 to fire weapons, much less automatic weapons, much less an Uzi. Because it is an UZI.

Generally speaking, I think that people who are not tall enough to ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO SHOOT UZIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Or anything else, but ESPECIALLY NOT UZIS.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	fools_game 2008-10-28 06:20 am UTC (link)
	It's my understanding that most guns like an Uzi would have to be modified in order to be legally owned in the US. The semi-auto version, one shot at a time, not the full-auto. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

witty, 2008-10-28 12:12 pm UTC

	khym_chanur 2008-10-28 06:46 am UTC (link)
	... Being from the Middle East prevents one from learning gun safety? (Reply to this)(Parent)

rosehiptea
2008-10-28 02:51 am UTC (link)

The whole thing is bad enough but I knew I shouldn't have looked at the comments.

Then again what do you expect from someone who has a middle eastern type name. (no gun LAWS)

Yes, this all has to do with a man's possible ancestry and not with a really bad decision to let a child fire an automatic weapon. Which was legal in the U.S.

I also highly doubt that there are no gun laws in countries in the Middle East but google didn't help me prove it.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

franzen
2008-10-28 04:01 am UTC (link)

... Jesus Christ, you're shitting me, right?

Between this and some hateful comments on Gawker (note to bigots: learn to fucking split the difference between Arab and Muslim, or I will punch you out) -- I just can't even motherfucking deal any longer.

Alas, I know very little about gun laws, but a quick search of 'gun laws Lebanon' returned this, which proves that, yes, there are gun laws in the Middle East. How they compare to the ones in America, I don't know. But since ours are loophole-free, it's a totally fair comparison!

If anyone needs me, I'm going to be over here blaring Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	kuromitsu 2008-10-28 11:01 am UTC (link)
	How is "Bizilj" a Middle Eastern sounding name? O_o It sounds Central or East-European... Slovenian maybe. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

digigirl132, 2008-10-28 02:16 pm UTC

kuromitsu, 2008-10-28 02:27 pm UTC

digigirl132, 2008-10-28 02:34 pm UTC

(no subject) - redwarrior, 2008-10-28 09:53 pm UTC

	scimitar 2008-10-28 04:21 pm UTC (link)
	What I've heard from one of my cousins who currently lives in a Middle Eastern country is that the gun laws are pretty stringent for most people, but are very lax for the bedouins, that is, the original natives. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	jupiterpluvius 2008-10-29 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Bizilj is a SLOVENIAN name. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

rosehiptea, 2008-10-29 07:20 pm UTC

aerobot
2008-10-28 03:36 am UTC (link)

"no age limit or licenses required to shoot machine guns."

Wait wait wait, what? WHAT?? ARE YOU SHITTING ME?

I mean, jesus, I can understand that a minor might be allowed to fire a small rifle or something on the farm, BUT A FUCKING MACHINE GUN? WHY? Who the hell thought THAT was a good idea? Why the hell does a kid need to fire a machine gun anyway?

I swear to god I will never understand American gun culture. *buries face in hands*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	luxshine 2008-10-28 05:28 am UTC (link)
	I'm with you there. Everytime I see in the news or in tv a story about a tragedy at a gunrange, I wonder why (some people) in the USA are so obsessed with guns and owning guns. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aerobot, 2008-10-28 06:22 am UTC

fools_game, 2008-10-28 06:31 am UTC

purple_smurf, 2008-10-28 01:25 pm UTC

drakyndra, 2008-10-28 02:35 pm UTC

kuromitsu, 2008-10-28 12:46 pm UTC

luzzleanne, 2008-10-28 02:54 pm UTC

pariforma, 2008-10-28 03:27 pm UTC

florence_craye, 2008-10-28 07:56 pm UTC

(no subject) - redwarrior, 2008-10-28 09:54 pm UTC

digigirl132
2008-10-28 02:33 pm UTC (link)

It stems back to the time before the American Revolution. The British wanted to get rid of the American militia, because they were afraid of a revolution. So they tried to take away everyone's guns. And this was a big problem, since people didn't just use guns for wars: Most people lived out in the woods, and they needed to hunt for food and protect themselves from wolves and bears. So that's why so many Americans are like 'RAWR WE KEEP OUR GUNS!!!!111!'. Once bitten twice shy or something, I guess.

Not that it makes much sense nowadays though, since most people have no need for a gun anymore.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aerobot, 2008-10-29 08:27 am UTC

pariforma, 2008-10-29 12:02 pm UTC

rimrunner, 2008-10-29 03:06 am UTC

aerobot, 2008-10-29 08:27 am UTC

	aristaea 2008-10-28 04:45 am UTC (link)
	I guess it's an ironic tragedy, but I lol'd. They let children use military-grade weapons, and didn't see this coming? Srsly? (Reply to this)

	gardnerhill 2008-10-28 07:28 am UTC (link)
	Aaaand Uncle Chuck (Darwin, that is) wins another round. (Reply to this)(Thread)

kuromitsu, 2008-10-28 11:38 am UTC

moljn, 2008-10-28 12:28 pm UTC

moljn
2008-10-28 12:20 pm UTC (link)

1) Is it me or is it in very bad taste to talk about the kid having been a "budding geologist"? Dude, the bud shot himself in the head, it doesn't matter what he could have been.

2) I know the dad is grieving and all, but all the talk about legacy... The kid was *eight*. His legacy is proving to the world that a medical degree means fuck-all when it's time to be a responsible parent.

2b) Yeah, I'm probably a hypocrite. At least I haven't managed to kill anyone yet.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) - iwanttobeasleep, 2008-10-28 04:47 pm UTC

	darsynia 2008-10-30 01:12 pm UTC (link)
	(Reply to this)

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