An Eight Year Old Boy And An UZI

[cabinetman]

I do think there is some excuse for the father, as the last para in the report says - "Charles Bizilj was not charged because he was a layman and based his decision to allow his sons to fire the gun on information from others who should have known it was too dangerous, prosecutors have said."

So he might have asked, 'what is this gun, is it okay for my son to use it?', and probably gotten the answer "sure, no problem!".

If I had been there, I might have asked and assumed the same (ie, the people running the show knew what they were talking about). Of course, I'd never take a child to such a show. And this incident only serves to teach other parents that.

That's a good point. No telling if that's what he asked. But, it's likely that he had assumed there was an element of safety. This is a good heads up on letting children have some kind of access to that sort of risk. Take the thought a step further. Visitors to a shop either children or adults that could have access to shop machinery/tools like saws, drills, nailers, staplers, or even hand tools, may not be familiar with tools, are also at risk.

One my stepsons and grandkids had spent so much time in my shop, I'm sure they picked up on the sequence of "readying" a tool. So I took further measures to create "safeties" they weren't aware of.

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