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Senate votes to prohibit possession of machine guns by children

The state Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to ban the possession and use of machine guns by children under the age of 16.
The 31-2 vote comes in response to the accidental shooting death last October of an 8-year-old Connecticut boy, Christopher Bizilj, who was allowed to shoot an Uzi submachine gun at a Massachusetts gun fair. The boy lost control of the gun as it fired, shooting himself in the head.
Three people, including the police chief who organized the show, have since been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter in Massachusetts.
But in Connecticut, no similar prohibition on the use of military-style machine guns existed under law.
Leaders of both parties in the legislature said such a prohibition was simple common sense, particularly since many of their constituents likely believed that it was already illegal to let children handle such weapons.
“It seems extraordinary that we would have to legislate something that in my opinion would be a matter of ordinary prudence,” said Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, the co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which raised the bill.