Italy’s Christian Ghilli, the 19-year-old reigning World Junior Skeet Champion, is dead after a momentary lapse in firearm safety.
Unfortunately, one moment is all it takes to end the life of one the most talented young skeet shooters in the world.
Ghilli was in the woods at Montecatini Val di Cecina in Tuscany when he stopped to pick up some of his spent cartridges.
One news report says he fell, causing the fatal shot to his stomach. Other outlets say when Ghilli bent over to pick up some spent shells he somehow shot himself in the stomach.
His friends immediately called for medical assistance, but despite being rushed to a hospital in Cecina, doctors could not save his life. Ghilli succumbed to his wounds shortly after arriving at hospital.
Luciano Rossi, President of the Italian Shooting Federation, said,
Last October the young skeet player was crowned World Champion in teams and in the Mixed Team, accompanying the gold with a third individual place in the World Cup in Lima, Peru.
In May 2021 he had won gold in the individual, team and Mixed Team competition in the European Championship in Osjiek in Croatia.
With respect, silence, condolences in the face of a tragedy that leaves everyone upset.
May the earth be light to you, Cristian.
The death of this talented young man, a rising star in the skeet shooting community, is a stark reminder that basic firearm safety rules must be followed at all times.
One misplaced step, as apparently happened in this case, is all it takes to end a life full of promise and hope.
My condolences to Christian Ghilli’s family and friends.
Very interesting story, Christopher,
I started googling this and several news organizations mainly from E.U. carried a brief story, seems the info isn’t very detailed, some say he was hiking with friends, others say he was hunting with friends, only one mentioned what type of firearm , apparently a rifle.
Then, especially the U.K. sites and one USA site started their own thinly disguised anti-firearms innuendos.
particularly “Newsweek” and doing a little bit research into that ‘news organization’ they have a very sketchy track and legal record, don’t use fact-checkers and really like to link anti-gun/shooting world-wide stories into one blend of the main title story and cherry-pick “facts”.
E.G….quote “Accidental shootings are one of the most common causes of death and kill nearly 500 people in the United States every year, according to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.
In one study, researchers found that nearly 14 percent of unintentional gun deaths occur while hunting while 28 percent involve children playing with a gun. An additional 17 percent occurred while individuals believed the gun was not loaded.”
This was thrown into the Italian/Cristian article.
I could go on, but wow, so much selective b.s. and anti-firearms attitudes and I’m sure many uninformed readers believe this to be the almighty truth.
The other day I was reading the comments following one of Ian Runkles videos and the inevitable troll[s] pop out …I.E one espousing the values and crime free status of a U.K. anti-firearms ownerships and Legislations.
I didn’t respond, I rarely do, but the FACT is that in the UK [ and some other select countries] there are thriving businesses that cater to stab/slash/puncture-proof clothing for all sorts of health care and teacher and correctional and students and average jane and joe walking the streets of London. Little boys and little girls in grade school can get packs and clipboards and other items to protect against fellow students knives. The stories one follows on this indicate a very high rate of blade-weapon assaults upon the population. Getting rid of their legal gun ownership seems to intensified violence in UK. From what little i hear, so too the Netherlands, Belgium, and Australia., Kenya.
But here I really went off elsewhere, didn’t I?… usually this happens when I want to follow up on original story and go looking for facts, all from an “accidental discharge”. Thankfully his friends did not get the bullet.
thanks again for the article Chris bye.
Hey Peter. It’s easy to wander far and wide when the stupid is everywhere. I saw those articles twisting it to meet their own agendas too and ignored them. You found what I did, that the information is pretty sparse about his death.
For me, his untimely death is a stark reminder that even the best shooters in the world make mistakes and, sadly, those mistakes sometimes cost them their lives, as it did here. Truly an incredible talent and it sucks that he’s gone way too soon.
My condolences to Christian’s family. May God bless you. This was a terrible accident that happened to a very young man,, who knew the rules of firearms safety. He wouldn’t have got to where he was in the shooting world if he did not. It pisses me off that the anti firearms people have to make this a firearms issue and not care one bit about what happened to this young man or how his family feels from this horrible event. Shame on all of you who have no feelings or respect for this family.
lynn