Senate Passes Machine Gun Ban For Kids
by Christine Stuart | April 30, 2009 3:37 PM
Posted to State Capitol
By a vote of 31 to 2 the Senate passed a bill Thursday that prohibits anyone under the age of 16 from firing a machine gun.
The bill was written in response to the death of an 8-year-old Ashford boy who was using an Uzi at a Massachusetts gun club when it recoiled and he shot himself in the head.
Most Senators on both sides of the aisle said it was a common sense measure.
One senator who voted against it thought the bill would be useless in stopping future tragedies, while another who is a friend of the 8-year-old boy’s family doesn’t think the law is necessary.
“I didn’t think we needed a law to address it,” Sen. Anthony Guglielmo, R-Stafford Springs, said. “You can’t take all the risk out of life.”
Guglielmo, whose mother works with the boy’s father in the emergency room at Johnson Memorial Hospital, said the boy’s father, Dr. Charles Bizilj, wanted his children to have life experiences and adventures. He said Dr. Bizilj’s sons enjoyed the outdoors and being sportsmen. He said this was just a tragic incident and “a very rare” occurrence.
“Life is a risk,” Guglielmo said.
Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, was the other senator who voted against the bill.
Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said “all constitutional rights are subject to reasonable regulation.” He said that children under the age of 16 simply should not be handling machine guns.
“It is of vital importance that we keep children safe from assault weapons and machine guns,” Looney said. “Children should not be in possession of assault weapons and machine guns which they may not be strong enough to control.”
The bill now goes to the House for consideration.
Comments (8)
Posted by: Resident | April 30, 2009 4:25 PM
What I want to know is, what kind of person would vote against this. And how do we vote them out of office?
Posted by: iBlogWestHartford | April 30, 2009 8:51 PM
And in other daring moves, the always-on-top-of-things-after-the-fact-senate also banned:
> cars without steering wheels;
> pet lions in restaurants;
> salaries for UCONN coaches which exceed the total state budget;
> those really really REALLY hot red peppers;
> unmeditated murder;
> for anyone under 16, hydrogen bombs; and
> that thing that will kill someone tomorrow that so obviously should have been made illegal years ago, but, alas, we don't know what it is QUITE yet (did I say that right, Master Lobbyist?)
Proud to be a Nutmegger!
Posted by: Streever | April 30, 2009 9:01 PM
It's a horrible tragedy, but anyone arguing that shooting an uzi is "part of life" needs a mental health exam.
I shot bb guns and low power ranged weapons starting around 12. I had to lay prone, and fire a single shot weapon with no recoil.
It certainly didn't ruin my life. I think it's hard to argue that an essential life experience is firing an uzi.
Guglielmo is a dissapointment. What a waste of a seat.
Posted by: Streever | April 30, 2009 9:03 PM
Sorry, I can't resist:
I am imagining a campaign poster for Guglielmo. It says,
"BECAUSE 8 YEAR OLDS SHOULD BE ALLOWED: TO SHOOT UZIS"
Ok, stop me know.
Posted by: City Hall Watch | May 1, 2009 6:12 AM
Stupid, reactionary law. Is there any evidence this is a problem or widespread practice? Is it even being done in CT? The kid who got killed was doing this out of state. This law wouldn't have changed a thing. I just love shallow reationary politics. It always showcases the depth of thinking and thoughtfulness of those in office.
Posted by: Ben Ross | May 1, 2009 7:30 AM
Is the doctors license being reviewed? Parents are should protect kids. Doctors do no harm!
Posted by: Bill | May 1, 2009 7:44 PM
It's legal for a mother to kill her baby but not for a father let his father shoot an uzi. Millions of babies are killed every year. One boy was killed in the last million years by an uzi and now we have a law against it.
Go figure.
Posted by: Dani Durso | May 3, 2009 9:46 AM
Thanks Sen. Guglielmo, for voting against the Uzi bill. Growing up in the early 60"s I fired many automatic weapons and even some artillery. My friends and I also fired six guns, rifles, and cross bows. We had the opportunity to handle swords and spears.
Growing up and watching movies like the Magnificent Seven and the Great Escape inspired me to kill many Nazi's and banditos. I was also killed many times and was very creative when getting shot. I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, killing or being killed.
Unfortunately for me and my friends, we never experienced as kids the sheer joy that comes with handling REAL automatic weapons. Our weapons were usually sticks that we pretended were guns. Occasionally one of us might get a fancy pair of six guns with caps but cap guns were annoying. They didn't have the automatic capability of a stick and couldn't match the awesome sounds we created for our stick weapons. The senator is right when he said "Life is a risk". One time during our war games a friend fell off of a garage roof and suffered a broken arm. He was injured but still able to partake in our games and his sling made him look like John Wayne, which was cool.
Little did we know at the time how deprived we were. Kids today grow up and have the opportunity to shoot real automatic weapons, or did till Connecticut passed that bill that took away kids fun. Shooting real weapons has to be so much more satisfying then using sticks or plastic replicas. Even though we didn't have that opportunity years ago there was no reason for my friends and me to despair. Unbeknownst to us in a few short years there would be a chance to fire real automatic weapons in a place called Vietnam.