Canada: Grizzly Broke into House, Shot Dead in 2015 with a Rifle

It was 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, 9 August, 2015, in Kimberly, British Columbia when Niki and Mark Traverse' pet dog, a 9 1/2 year old Jack Russel Terrier named Sid, started barking frantically. Niki went to investigate, and came within five feed of a grizzly bear. From ctvnews.ca:

"It was 10 feet from our son’s bedroom door," she said.

"I ran back into our bedroom to grab my husband and say,‘There’s a bear in the house, there’s a bear in the house!’"

Mark Traverse, who is a hunter, quickly grabbed his gun, loaded it, and approached the feasting grizzly.

"It took a step to me and I shot it. It took another step and I shot it again," Mark said.

The bear soon died on the kitchen floor.

The couple now credits their pet for alerting them in time.

"This is the dog that saved us," Mark said as he scratched the little dog’s chest.

Mark was able to access the rifle from a locked locker in the bedroom. It was unloaded, as is required by Canadian law. Fortunately he had time to load the rifle before the bear investigated the bedroom.

The story might have been different if he had to retrieve the rifle from a locked safe in another part of the house. I have not been able to determine the make or caliber of the rifle.

Canadian bear attack stories are often ignored in American media.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Oklahoma Bill Introduced for Constitutional Carry

HB 2951 has been introduced in the Oklahoma House. It is an interesting version of Constitutional Carry. The bill adds self-defense to the list of activities that are exceptions to the general prohibition on carrying weapons that exist in Oklahoma law. It includes knives as well as guns. From koco.com:

Coody said House Bill 2951 is about law-abiding citizens protecting themselves in worst-case situations. The proposed legislation says anyone 21 or older, or at least 18 years old and a veteran or enlisted military member, would be able to carry a gun or rifle without a license.

Here is the first change in the bill, which alters 21 O.S. 2011, Section 1272.

A. It shall be unlawful for any person to carry upon or about his or her person, or in a purse or other container belonging to the person, any pistol, revolver, shotgun or rifle whether loaded or unloaded or any blackjack, loaded cane, billy, hand chain, metal knuckles, or any other offensive weapon, whether such weapon be concealed or unconcealed, except this section shall not prohibit: 

1. The proper use of guns and knives for self-defense, hunting, fishing, educational or recreational purposes;

There are numerous other changes accomplished by the bill, which has the usual exceptions for convicted felons, mentally incompetent, and all the usual list of prohibited possessors.

Much of the rest of the bill makes the exceptions for concealed carry permit holders apply to people who may legally possess firearms.  There are numerous "gun free zones" in the existing legislation. For most of the zones, the penalty, if such a person is found to be violating the "gun free zone" is to be removed from the property. If they refuse to leave, the penalty is a $250 fine.

The penalty is different for people with concealed carry permits who are caught carrying firearms on the campus of institutes of higher eduction.

If they are caught in such an activity, the campus may report them to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation within 10 days. Then the Bureau shall give notice to the licensee and hold a hearing.  The licensee may then be fined $250 and have their license suspended for three months.

The institutes of higher education are not prohibited from imposing administrative penalties on students who violate the institutions administrative rules concerning weapons.

The Oklahoma legislature has super majorities of Republicans in both houses. In the House, the majority is 74 to 26. In the Senate, 38 to 10. The governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, is a Republican.

The bill has a reasonable chance of passage. Vermont was the only state with Constitutional Carry for decades, but the bills have been popular in state legislatures in the third millennium.

 In 2003, Alaska passed the reform to restore the exercise of Second Amendment rights. In 2010, Arizona passed Constitutional Carry. In 2011, Wyoming, in 2013, Arkansas passed Act 746 into law. It is effectively Constitutional Carry, but is disputed by some county prosecutors. in 2015, Kansas, and Maine joined the Constitutional Carry club. In 2016, Idaho, Missouri, West Virginia, and Alabama enacted Constitutional Carry. In 2017, New Hampshire, and North Dakota were added to the list.

There are now 13 states with Constitutional Carry, as many as the original 13 states that ratified the United States Constitution.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

IL: Armed Samaritan uses AR-15 to Stop Knife Attack

The witness, who spoke with WGN-TV, said he ran to grab his AR-15 after hearing the commotion and spotting a "pool of blood" in his apartment building hallway. "Blood was everywhere," said neighbor Dave Thomas, adding that he chose the AR-15 over a handgun, saying, "Bigger gun, I think a little more of an intimidation factor. Definitely played a part in him actually stopping."

More Here

WI: Armed Victim Shoots, Kills Robbery Suspect

MILWAUKEE —

A man fought back and shot another man who was trying to rob him early Monday in the parking lot of Milwaukee MachineTool Corporation in the city's northwest side Silverswan neighborhood, police said.
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TX: Business Owner Shoots, Kills Man Attempting Break-in

HOUSTON – A man shot and killed someone trying to break into his business on northwest Houston overnight.

According to the Houston Police Department, it happened just after midnight early Monday at a business located in the 6100 block of Pinemont Drive, just east of Highway 290.
More Here

Australia had no School Shootings Before Their Extreme Gun Restrictions

Top 2 lines, blue, total suicides and suicides with guns. Bottom 2 lines, purple, total homicides and homicides with guns

In the presidential listening session where students expressed their emotions to President Donald Trump, about the Parkland school mass murder, one of the students made a comment about school shootings and Australia. Sam Zeif in video from the presidential listening session, February 21, 2018:

In Australia there was a shooting at a school in 1999. 

 I am reminded of the scene from Animal House, where Bluto exclaims:

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

and a listener replies "Forget it, he's rolling."

But Zeif has much more wrong than Bluto did about Peal Harbor.

Australia did not have any rampage school shootings before 1996, when they implemented their extreme gun ownership and use scheme. 

Zeif then claims that the Australian parliament then "stopped it", and that there have been zero students shot in Australia since their extreme restrictions on gun ownership and use were implemented.

In fact, the closest Australia has had in a rampage school shooting was in 2002, six years after the gun restrictions were put into effect. The events took place at Monash University, not a grade or high school. That shooter did not use a rifle. He used six pistols.

The Australian parliament responded by passing even more restrictions on gun ownership and use.

The next closest Australian mass murder took place in 2000, four years after the extreme restrictions on gun ownership and use were put in place. That mass murder did not involve guns. The murderer used arson to murder 15 international backpackers in Childers, Queensland, in the Childers Backpackers Hostel fire.

Emotional diatribes that have little to no fact behind them are useful to stir up support in an audience. They are terrible ways to formulate policy.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

TX: Teen Shot and Killed Attempting to Burglarize Residence

KPD officers arrived in the 1700 block of Spring Rose Circle shortly after 6:15 p.m. Wednesday on a shots fired call. Upon arrival, officers found a black male lying in the home.

According to a preliminary investigation, the teen was shot while attempting to burglarize the residence. He was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke.
More Here

LA: Armed Homeowner Shoots, Kills Intruder

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -

A man was shot and killed by a homeowner early Sunday morning, Baton Rouge Police confirm.

According to officials, the shooting happened at roughly 3:30 a.m. at a home located in the 3400 block of Canyonland.

David Michael Paul Martin, 26, was pronounced dead at the scene.

More Here

TX: Burglar Shot and Killed

A man shot and killed a burglar breaking into his home Thursday afternoon, police say.

A report from the Schertz Police Department says that they were called to a residence at the 4000 block of Brook Hollow Drive around 2:15 pm for a reported violent disturbance. When they arrived at the scene, they found that a man had been shot several times.
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AR: Home Invasion Suspect Shot and Killed by Armed Homeowner

Authorities said "initial statements" gathered at the scene indicated that Jeffery L. Baker "forcefully entered" a home on South LaSalle Street in Rector, after which the homeowner shot him.

Baker died at the scene. His body, which police found in the home around 8:10 p.m., was sent to the state Crime Laboratory for an autopsy.
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Two Schools, Two Raffles, Rifles, Courage, and Cowardice

After another mass murder in the defenseless victim zone of a Florida School, the dominant media and other anti-Second Amendment bullies are demanding that American conservatives and the Gun Culture accept their assumption that guns are evil. To accede to those demands is both easy and cowardly.

All of the power in the leftist media, such as ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, AP and CBS, are on the side of the anti-Second Amendment bullies. The easy way out, when confronted with such power to demean, denigrate, and destroy, is to surrender and beat a hasty retreat. It is easy to give up your principles and give implicit agreement that guns are evil.

That is what happened in Michigan. From freep.com:

A "Wild Game" charity dinner to raise money for a high school football team in western Oakland County has been cancelled after community backlash over a raffle whose prizes included an AR-15 rifle — the same semi-automatic weapon that was used to kill 17 people at a Florida school this past week.

"Due to the recent tragic events earlier this week, the South Lyon Football Booster Organization has decided to cancel their second annual Wild Game Dinner. The sensitivity of the issue coupled with the untimely tragedy has led to the decision," a statement posted on the team's website said.

The statement, written by the South Lyon Football Boosters, explained that the area has "an abundance of hunters and sportsmen," the event was attempting to take these interests into account.

Charity rallies for rifles are common all across the United States. They are used to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for worthy events every year. They are a proud acclamation that the gun culture is mainstream. They announce that the gun culture does not accept the premise that guns are evil. To renounce a charity gun raffle is to announce that guns have no place in American society. AR15 type rifles are the very epitome of guns that are protected by the Second Amendment. They are exactly the type of arms most useful to a free people for defense of self and society. They are an ideal arm for militia use.

Courage and conviction can be found. There are those who refuse to be bullied and silenced. Those who refuse to accept the premise of those who despise them and the entire idea of limited government. So far, in Pensacola Florida, a private school is refusing to bend the knee to the media bullies.  From kvue.com:

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A private school in Pensacola is featuring two rifles as prizes in a charity golf event.

The 15th annual Trinitas Classic and Pro Am Golf Tournament, a fundraiser for Trinitas Christian Academy, will feature a Browning A-BOLT III Stalker, a bolt-action rifle, and a Smith & Wesson M&P15 — a sporting rifle similar in design to the AR-15 — as prizes for a putting contest.The prizes were announced on the event's Facebook page in January, but a parent has raised concerns about the weapons being involved in a school function after a shooting on Wednesday in a Parkland high school resulted in 17 deaths.

Trinitas representatives could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

The Christian academy is a private K-12 school. Its website says many of the school's families "depend on tuition assistance to be able to provide an excellent classical and Christ-centered education to their children. This tuition assistance is provided by many supporters in the community through our annual fund campaign and fundraising events like the Trinitas Classic." 

Maybe the Christian academy will hold to its rights in a free republic. Maybe it will give in to the bullies.  I hope it chooses to resist the powers that be. A Kansas candidate for Congress is showing it can be done. From  wect.com:

A Kansas candidate for Congress is brushing off accusations of being tone deaf and continuing a campaign promotion to give away an AR-15 rifle.

Tyler Tannahill, a Republican candidate in Kansas’ second district, said the promotion was planned well before a gunman used the same weapon this week to kill 17 people at a high school in Florida.

"About a month ago we planned it out and earlier this week on Tuesday we did the launch,” he said.

Tannahill said as a supporter of the Second Amendment he was continuing with the giveaway as a matter of principle.

 "Tone deaf" is the bullies code for "you must do as we say" and "you have to accept our assumptions".  Tannahil is not willing to allow the bullies in the media and anti-Second Amendment extremists dictate his assumptions about reality.

President Trump has shown that the Media bullies can be beaten. He has done it again and again. People do not have to give in to politically correct commissars.

They can resist. They can show courage, not cowardice.

 ©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.  Link to Gun Watch

Las Vegas Mass Murder Initial Report, Luggage, Rifles, Revolver and Ammunition

On 18 January, 2018, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) released a preliminary report on the mass murder committed on 1 October, 2017.

The report is unusual, a unique response to the public clamoring for facts after the shooting. Ordinarily, the LVMPD does not release information about an ongoing investigation.

This is an ongoing investigation, and is not a complete report. However, the report lists a number of preliminary conclusions that many people will disagree with. Whether you disagree or not, the report contains a wealth of information, and provides significant amounts of valuable data for those who are interested and attempting to understand the event, how it occurred, and what the shooter did in the years and weeks previous to the shooting from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

There are excellent diagrams and pictures of the scene and the layout that make clear many of the confusions about the event.

A detailed inventory of the firearms found in the Mandalay Bay suite consisting of rooms 32-135 and 32-134 provides significant information. Time references to the numerous times that the shooter took luggage to the suite makes it clear that there was no difficulty in the shooter bringing the 23 AR-15 and AR-10 clones, 1 bolt action .308 rifle with scope, and 1 revolver to the suite without fear of detection.

The shooter brought five suitcase bags with him on September 25th. The shooter rolled one bag, and a bellman took the other four bags on a luggage cart. On 26 September, the shooter brought six suitcases and one rolling suitcase to the Mandalay Bay. The six suitcases were brought up by luggage cart with a bellman. The rolling suitcase was brought by the shooter.  This movement of luggage was with a different bellman than on 25 September.

On 26th September the shooter was seen in the valet area of Mandalay bay with two rolling suitcases.  It appears he left the Mandalay Bay with the two suitcases, then returned on 28 September with two rolling suitcases.

On September 30th, the shooter brought more suitcases to his room, which was now the suite of 32-135 and 32-134.

On October 1st, the shooter brought two more rolling suitcases and a bag into the Mandalay Bay.

In total, over a week and in at least four different events, the shooter, using rolling suitcases, luggage carts and bellmen, moved at least 17 pieces of luggage in the Mandalay Bay.

None of this was even remotely a cause for alarm. Those of you who have spend any time traveling and using hotels know that the movement of five, six, or seven large suitcases into room and suites is a commonplace occurrence.  All of the rifles found in the suite could easily be disassembled into components that can fit into a large suitcase.  Some of the suitcases may have been used more than once.

All of the rifles and the revolver are identified by manufacturer and serial number in the report.  There were 13 AR-15 clones with 100 round magazines and bump stocks. This meant that the shooter never would have had to change magazines to shoot the number of cartridges expended. One AR-15 type rifle had a 40 round magazine.  One AR-15 type rifle did not have a magazine in it.  That shows 15 AR-15 type rifles in the suite.

There were Six AR-10 clones with 25 round magazines and two AR-10 clones without magazines in the rifles. There was on Ruger scoped bolt action rifle chambered in .308.

One Smith & Wesson model 342 AirLite Ti .38 revolver was found with four live rounds and one fired cartridge case in the cylinder. The shooter had purchased 29 firearms from 1982 to September 2016.  Of the firearms found in the Mandalay Bay suite, only the revolver had been purchased before September, 2016. 

At least 10 suitcases were found in the suite during the investigation.

Approximately 1,050 .223/5.56 empty cartridge cases were found in the suite. Only 8 .308/7.62 cartridge cases were listed as being found.

At least 14 loaded magazines were found in the suite, with about 5,280 rounds of live ammunition. The loaded magazines included steel 100 round AR-15 magazines, polymer 40 round AR-15 magazines, and polymer 25 round AR-10 magazines. Empty rifle magazines were also found. The magazines are not numbered by type in the report.

The report mentions that there were 1,965 leads investigated, including 21,560 hours of video and 251,099 images obtained. Analysis found 529 sightings of the shooter.

While it has been reported that the door of the suite had a hundred bullet holes, in fact, there were only about 35 shots fired through the door, resulting in about 200 bullet strikes as the projectiles went through the door and struck additional walls and doors inside Mandalay Bay. Security officer Campos was struck in the left calf by a bullet fragment, which he initially though was from a BB or pellet gun.

On page 47 of the report, it is reported that several hundred images of child pornography were found on a Dell laptop in the Mandalay Bay suite.   Investigation into those images is ongoing.  The same laptop held evidence of numerous searches about outdoor venues and other information that would be relevant to planning the mass murder that took place.

The shooter fired about eight rounds of .308 at the fuel tanks at the airport. Google Earth shows the range to the tanks to be about 675 yards. The bullet strikes did not ignite any fuel. The pictures in the report look as though the bullets did not penetrate the tank.

This review covers only a small portion of the information in the preliminary report. Those who are interested can read the entire report at this link.

 ©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup OH: No Charges for Off Duty Officer who Shot Teen Suspect

Swearingen twice shot the teen in the right arm as the suspect was seeking to carjack several vehicles after the suspect’s stolen vehicle broke down shortly after robbing a Shell station in heavy traffic near Ohio 725 and Interstate 75 interchange, Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck, Jr. has said.

Heck said Swearingen arrived on the scene as the suspect was fleeing, identified himself as a police officer, ordered the teen to drop his .45-caliber gun and shot him when the suspect failed to comply.
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FL: Teen Burglary Suspect Shot, Killed

Deputies say they got a call about a burglary and shots fired at a house on Echo Lake Court. They say 17-year-old Jene Rene Gonzalez was shot to death by someone inside the home. The homeowner wouldn't talk on camera, but told me the suspect broke a window to get inside. We talked to a neighbor
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FL: Veteran Shoots Man who Assaulted Him

A would-be home invader was shot in the chest by a Navy veteran who said he had no other choice when the man attacked him last Friday.

Carmelo Marchese told FOX13 he was sitting in his home in Lecanto, located north of Tampa, when a stranger knocked on the door at 11:30 p.m. and sent his dog Daisy into a barking fit.

When he answered the door, Marchese said the man, identified by police as Joshua Bernard, started to push him and grabbed his neck.

“I was honestly and truly in fear for my life,” he said.
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Defense Against Bears with Pistols: 97% Success rate, 37 incidents by Caliber

On the Internet, and in print, many people claim that pistols lack efficacy in defending against bear attacks. Here is an example that occurred on freerepublic.com:

“Actually, there are legions of people who have been badly mauled after using a handgun on a bear. Even some of the vaunted magnums.”

OK, give us a few examples. As you claim “legions”, it should not be too hard.

I never received a response. I believe the claim was made in good faith. There has been much conjecture about the lack of efficacy of pistols for defense against bears. A little searching will find a plethora of fantasy, fiction, mythology, and electrons sprayed about the supposed lack.

I engaged in a search for instances where  pistols were used to defend against bears.  I and my associates have found 37 instances that are fairly easily confirmed. The earliest happened in 1987, the latest mere months ago. The incidents are heavily weighted toward the present, as the ability to publish and search for these incidents has increased, along with increases in bear and human populations, and the carry of pistols.

The 37 cases include one that can fairly be described as a "failure".

The pistol calibers, when known,  range from 9 mm to .454 Casull. The most common are .44 magnums.  Here are the cases, sorted by caliber:

 We have found four cases where 9 mm pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.


1. Alaska, Russian River,  Grizzly Charged Fishermen, 9mm 17 August, 2002

But then the bear turned, looked up at Brenner and lunged, said Lewis, who interviewed the three men Saturday.

Brenner fired twice at the center of the hulking shape closing to four or five feet away. The sow, estimated at 400 to 450 pounds, went down. Brenner then put three more bullets into her head.

He used a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol. Lewis said such a low-caliber gun ordinarily doesn't pack enough punch to kill a bear. But Brenner loaded the pistol with full-metal-jacket bullets that penetrated to the bear's vital organs, he said.

2. Bear Charged  John Tiebohl, 9 mm, 31 August, 2004 Bachelor Gulch, Colorado

BACHELOR GULCH – The Aug. 31 shooting of a bear in Bachelor Gulch still echoes among residents in the upscale enclave.The Colorado Division of Wildlife continues to investigate the incident, in which homeowner John Tietbohl shot and wounded a bear outside his Daybreak Ridge home. Tietbohl told officers the bear had been trying to get into his home, then charged him as he was getting into his car that evening. Tietbohl, who had been carrying a 9-millimeter pistol as a sidearm to protect himself from the bear, shot and hit the animal, which left a trail of blood as it ran off.Earlier in the day, Bachelor Gulch security officers had repeatedly sprayed pepper spray at the bear near Tietbohl’s house, but the animal stayed around. The bear also reportedly slipped into Tietbohl’s garage in the days before it was shot.

3. AK: Guide Kills Attacking Grizzly with 9mm, July, 2016

In the last week in July, 2016, Phil Shoemaker had use a 9mm pistol to kill a grizzly that was threatening his clients and himself.  It worked.

4. Bowhunters, Spray Failed, 9mm, Grizzly October, 2017, account from two sources, Todd Orr, and Eye-witness, Beaver Creek, MT.

I interviewed both sources. The attack was reported to Fish and Game, but was not published.

It was at the end of the day, and was getting dark. Two bow hunters, were returning from their bow hunt. They both had bear spray and pistols. They had agreed that if forced into defending themselves, one would use spray, the other would back up the spray with his pistol.

The male grizzly bluff charged several times, blocking their return to camp.

Warning shots were fired in the air with a 9 mm pistol. The bear ran off, then came back. Bear spray was utilized but only extended 10 feet into a light head wind and did not reach the bear. The bear would not disengage. It kept coming back and getting closer.  The aggressive bear was finally shot with the 9 mm pistol at close range. It ran off. The report was made to Fish and Wildlife, and the bear was found dead the next day. Eye-witness believes it was one shot to the chest of the bear.


 We have found three cases where .357 revolvers were used to defend against bears. Two were successful, one was unsuccessful.


 1. MT: Grizzly Bear Killed After Biting Warden in Montana Forest June 26, 1987, .357 Magnum

Pictures at Field and Stream Article here

‘’I wouldn’t want to have another go-round,’’ the 60-year-warden, Lou Kis, said from his hospital bed after undergoing surgery for the bite, which was so powerful that it broke the leg bone below the knee.

Mr. Kris, a warden captain here for 22 years, killed the 400- to 500-pound bear with six shots from his .357 caliber Magnum revolver as it bit him.

 2. Alaska Geologist Pistol Defense failure June 20, 2010, Grizzly Bear, .357 Magnum

Miller managed to pull out his .357 Magnum revolver and squeeze off a shot, possibly grazing the animal. Then he fell onto his stomach, dug his face into the dirt and covered his neck.

The bear went for his exposed right arm, gnawing and clawing it and chipping the bone off the tip of his elbow. The attack lasted 10 to 15 seconds, then the animal lumbered away.

As Miller rolled over and was getting to his knees, the bear, only about 40 yards away, came at him again.

He managed to fire two more shots, but with his right arm badly injured he thinks he missed the bear. Then he lay still as the animal gnawed and clawed at him.

After the second attack, Miller played dead again, lying still for three to five minutes. He tried to move and realized he couldn’t. He was too badly injured.

“I was just hoping my radio was still in my vest pocket and it was,” he said. “I got it out and started radioing mayday, which nobody answered.”

3. Glacier National Park: Bear first sprayed, then shot with a .357 (July 2014)

Murphy first sprayed bear spray at the bear when it was 15 to 25 feet away, firing one shot from his .357 revolver when the bear had approached to within 7-10 feet.  The bear was charging uphill at the time.     He only fired one round at the bear, which fell back and stopped moving when shot.   Many have suggested that he should have continued firing, but it is hard to argue with success.

 We have found three cases where .40 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.

1. Black Bear broke into Anchorage home, AK Glock .40 , 2 June, 2006

A large black bear broke into an Anchorage home early this morning, rummaged around like a burglar and feasted on a box of chocolates before the homeowner shot him dead with a Glock.

(snip)

Knowlton said the bear started back up the stairs toward his son. He shot the animal multiple times and it went back downstairs.

2. Zanesville Ohio, escaped bear, duty pistol,  20 October, 2011 .40 caliber (from Muskingum County Sheriff's Office)

But soon, he was facing another, much larger, problem. His commanding officer told him a lion had been cornered back at the Thompson home. He headed back, but instead of finding a lion, he was confronted by an angry bear.

“The black bear turned in my direction and ran directly towards me,” Merry told ABC News. “I fortunately was able to pull my duty pistol, fired one shot, killing the animal instantly. The black bear fell approximately fell seven feet in front of me.”

(snip)

Fred Polk watched in disbelief as he watched the bear charge Merry and a lion leap over a fence into his yard about 5 p.m. Tuesday night.

“One of the bears charged the deputy and the deputy shot it. After that one of the lions jumped the fence come down here and the deputy shot it in my front yard,” Polk said.

3. May 13, 2017 Bristol, NH, Officer shoots, kills Aggressive Black Bear with .40 cal Glock

Police Chief Michael Lewis said Thursday that, on May 13 at 12:25 a.m., officer Thomas Seager responded to a 911 call from a resident on Riverdale Road about a bear breaking into a garage.

When the bear advanced toward Seager, he fired a “scare” shot, causing the bear to leave the area, Lewis said.

Seager reported the incident to the state’s Fish and Game Department but, nine minutes later, the property owner called to say the bear was back and up in a tree.

The second time the officer responded, the bear came down out of the tree and advanced on Seager again, according to Lewis.

“One round was fired, terminating the bear,” Lewis said.

The animal was killed with the officer’s .40-caliber Glock handgun.

 We have found one case where a 10 mm pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.

 AK: Kim Woodman Kills Charging Grizzly with 10 mm 29 July, 2016

On 29 July, 2016, about 4 p.m. Kim Woodman was attacked by a sow brown bear at Humpy Creek.

Kim had a Glock model 20 10 mm pistol with him. He was able to stop the attack by shooting the bear as it charged at him. While backing away from the charging bear, Kim tripped and fell backward. He instinctively attempted to fend off the bear with his foot, while he concentrated on firing the shots that saved his life. The last shot was just short of contact. It probably hit the bear in the chest, but also took off the tip of one of Kim's toes.

 We have found two cases where .41 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. Both were successful.

1. Montana: Bear attacked, man mauled, used .41 Mag to stop second attack April, 2008

Bozeman daily Chronicle

Then the bear attacked again, he said, moving incredibly fast, and that's when Johnson, still on his back, reached for the pistol he wore in a holster on his belt.

"I had my hand by my side," he said. "I pulled the gun and went boom. Tell me how fast that is."

The bullet struck the bear just below the snout and it collapsed immediately and almost landed on him, he said. Then he rose to his feet and put three more 240-grain slugs in it.

2. Clark Wy, .41 Magnum, Grizzly, 19 July, 2009

Jerry Ruth saw the grizzly for just a fraction of a second before it was on him.

Within seconds, the 275-pound animal had crushed the Wyoming man's jaw when it bit him in the face, fractured his rib and punctured his lung and left deep bite wounds in his calf and scratches across his back.

After the attack, the bear left him for her three cubs that Ruth saw for the first time as he lay bleeding on the dirt. When it reached the cubs about 15 yards away, the bear turned toward him again, "squaring off" as if to charge, Ruth recalled Friday.  

Ruth grabbed for the .41-caliber magnum revolver he was carrying in a hip holster and relied on his training and experience as a police officer to save his life. He fired three times, saving three bullets in case his first shots failed.

But the bear dropped and didn't move, ending the furious encounter as swiftly as it started.

We have found twelve cases where .44 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. All were successful.

1. AZ .44 Magnum used to stop black bear attack, AZ Republic, page 39 -Newspapers.com, July 1996
 
Comprehensive article from Gun Watch published in 2017

Jul 28, 1996  The 16-year-old counselor, Anna - Knochel, was in critical condition. Brett Kramer drove away the 340-pound male bear by shooting it twice with a .44 Magnum pistol.

2. Muldoon Alaska, Hiker Kills Charging Brown Bear from 20 feet with .44 Magnum,  24 September, 2004

Original story from Anchorage Daily News

"I fired the first shot, and I aimed at its shoulders. When the first shot didn't faze it, I fired the second time, and it turned into the ditch, and I shot three more times, and it went down," said Boyd.

Boyd was down to one remaining bullet in his .44-caliber Magnum when he called Anchorage police for assistance. State trooper Kim Babcock helped Boyd finish off the bear with her shotgun.

3. Grizzly attacked Moose Hunters, 7 September, 2006, Alaska, .44 magnum, The Longest Minute

 When Reed distracted the bear from its attack on me, I had time to concentrate on the holster. I saw a buckle with a strap running through it. I could not figure out how it held the gun in place, so I grabbed the buckle and attempted to rip it off. To my surprise, the buckle was actually a snap and the strap peeled away. As I pulled the revolver out, a sudden calm came over me, and I knew everything would be fine. I looked in the direction of Reed only to once again see the bear charging at me. He was about ten feet away coming up and over the initial log that I had tripped over. That was when I pointed the revolver and fired at center mass. The .44 magnum boomed in the night and the boar fell straight down, his head three feet away from where I stood. As he fell, he bit at the ground and ended up with a mouthful of sod. I stood in a dumbfounded stupor. I had no expectation that the pistol would kill the bear. My hope was that the shot would sting the bear and help scare him away along with the flame and loud report. As his head sagged to the ground, I shot him three more times in quick succession, out of fear and anger.

4. Wyoming, Flying H Ranch, Bowhunters Attacked by 600 lb Grizzly, Stopped Charge with .44 Magnum 17 September, 2007

Byrum started to pull his .44 Magnum pistol out of his holster. After bumping into Byrum, Hambelton dove to the ground and curled into a ball, with his backpack facing the bear.

"I just gritted my teeth expecting the bear to bite me," Hambelton said.

With the bear closing to within six feet, Byrum fired a shot into the bear's neck.

"I kept telling myself, don't shoot in the head," said Byrum, fearful that a bullet to the head would glance off the bear's skull.

As the pistol fired, Byrum tripped over a tree stump behind him. With Byrum on his back, the bear fell in front of his hunting boots.

"I thought, 'Oh no, this is going to be bad,'" said Byrum, who could see smoke coming out of the bear's fur where he had shot him.

 5. From bozemandailychronicle.com: October 6, 2007 MT (Tom Miner Basin), .44 Magnum

It attacked a pair of bow hunters early Saturday afternoon. One of them used bear pepper spray and halted a charge within nine feet, but the grizzly turned and charged a second time. That’s when the second hunter shot it twice with a .44 magnum pistol.

6. British Columbia: A Grizzly Bear, a .44 magnum, and a brush with death  June 2010

Link to video on Youtube

He kept one hand on the tripod and drew the other to his holster, pulling out the gun he'd never had to use. The grizzly zigzagged toward him, roaring the whole time.

Mr. Lorenz lifted the gun and set it off, just four feet above her head. The shot was enough to startle the bear and make her turn in the opposite direction.

"This was something that she wasn't expecting, to get blasted in the face; that was enough to put a damper on killing me," he said. "If I didn't have the gun, I would have been dead."

7. Wyoming, Paint Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Bow hunter shot Charging Grizzly with .44 magnum, 2010

Paint Creek reenactment

A bow hunter reenacts for investigators how he fired a .44 Magnum revolver at a grizzly bear near Paint Creek in the Shoshone National Forest in 2010. Investigators followed a blood trail for half a mile, but could not located the wounded bruin.

8. AK: Details on Charging Kodiak stopped with a .44 Mag Revolver (July 2015)

The bear was roughly 9 feet tall and started its charge at about 20 yards away. The man shot the bear by the time it moved half that distance, Svoboda said.

"It all happened in really tight quarters," he said. "He shot at it five times before it finally stopped and then once it was on the ground, it was still moving. So he shot it one more time and then it died."

9. Grand Teton National Park: Fisherman fires warning shots with .44 Magnum, Deters Bear Attack, August 15, 2015

According to the angler's report, he was fishing when he heard a noise behind him. He turned around to see three grizzly bears, one adult and two cubs, coming toward him. The adult bear stood on its hind legs, at which point the fisherman fired one shot into the ground to the side of the bear. The bears then turned around and departed the area. The fisherman noted that he was near the "worm hole" area of the Snake River located approximately three quarters of a mile downriver from the Jackson Lake Dam.

10. Idaho: Bear Attacked Bow Hunter, Could not Reach Bear Spray, Drove off Bear with .44 Magnum pistol shots,  31 August, 2015

The hunter reportedly was carrying bear spray, but apparently couldn’t access it when the attack occurred. Fish and Game officials said the man was able to scare the bear off after he tried to shoot her several times with a .44 magnum revolver pistol at point-blank range.

The archer sustained injuries to his hand and wrist, but hiked out under his own power and was transported by ambulance to Madison County Hospital in Rexburg.

11. AK: Successful Bear Attack Defense with .44 Magnum (Aug 7, 2016)

“We immediately found ourselves in a confrontation,” Kluting said. “She ended up turning around and for a split second we thought she would leave – but then she turned back and came at us full charge.”

Kluting fired off a warning shot into the creek. At that point the sow was 15 yards away.

“She ran through that without even flinching,” he said.

So Kluting aimed in the middle of the brown blur, now about 3 yards away.

“I barely had time to get the hammer back for another shot before she reached me,” he said.

She collapsed in the river about 5 feet – two steps – away from them.

12. MT: Father Uses .44 Magnum to Shoot Grizzly Bear off Son (Oct. 2017)

Dave had closed to within six feet of Rory and the bear. Not wanting to hit Rory, hoping to get the bear to release his son, he shot the bear in the hip.

It worked. The bear dropped Rory and spun toward him. His next round was meant for the bear's shoulder. The situation was dynamic. The 240 grain slug went through the bears neck.

With the bear coming at him, the bear's mouth was within two feet of his .44 Taurus when he fired the last shot. The bullet went alongside the bear's head, into its neck, penetrating the chest cavity.

 We have found four cases where .45 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears. All were successful.

1. Grizzly shot with 9 rounds of .45 from a Glock 21 from gunnerforum.org reported August 22, 2009

There was not much news coverage of my friends incident up on his place in Marias pass area here in Montana. The proper agencies investigated and found him to have defended himself against this 400 lbs sow grizzly with 2 cubs.
Roy was up on the edge of his property tending his fence line, when out of the brush she was a coming straight at him with her ears back. Roy drew and put 3 rounds of 230-gr FMJ in her neck shoulder area, then took off away from the trail about 5 yards. Roy said the bear was still coming at him, and he fired 3 more rounds into her frontal area. And again took off another 5 yards off in another direction. The sow continued to follow coming at him, so Roy fired 3 more rounds into her frontal area and she dropped taking a dirt nap.
Roy called to report the incident, and they came out and brought a metal detector to locate spent extracted shell casings. Roy was found acting within his right to protect himself against the grizzly bear attack. But they said, they wished he would have used Counter Assault Bear Spray. Roy did not have any, so they gave him a can, plus some 12 ga cracker shells, and some other 12 ga shells will rubber bullets in them.
Roy came into town and purchased a Glock 20 10mm auto now.
I'm glad Roy is okay.

2. AK, Denali National Park: Backpacker Stops Grizzly attack with .45 pistol, May 28, 2010

A grizzly bear that emerged from a thicket and charged two backpackers in the backcountry of Denali National Park and Preserve was shot and killed by one of the two who was carrying a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, according to park officials.

The killing Friday is believed to be the first instance of a hiker killing a grizzly in the park's wilderness. The killing occurred in the original Mount McKinley National Park portion of the Denali, which was expanded by two-thirds in 1980.

3. AK: .45 vs 9-Foot Brown Bear (July, 2014), .45 semi-auto

Many people claim that handguns are useless for protection against bears.   Numerous examples have shown that this is a false notion.   Handguns may not be ideal as defensive weapons for bears, but they can be effective.  In a defensive situation, you have to use what is available.   In this case, a homeowner in Alaska used a .45 against a brown bear that was trying to get into his house on July 7th of this year.  He and his son were in the home.   He had scared off the animal with some warning shots just three hours before.

4. ID: Bear Attack on Sleeping Man Stopped with a .45 Pistol (Oct 2015)

Steven Vouch reached for his gun when he realized he was being attacked, but it wasn't there.  That is when his friend shot the bear with a .45.  Vouch is on the left in the Cowboy hat.

We have found one case where .45 Super pistol was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.

WY: .45 Super Stops Grizzly Bear Charge (Oct. 2017)

The hunters jumped up and separated. The bear momentarily halted. Kelley fired a warning shot from his .45 Super. The bear moved away a little, behind some fire killed trees and brush, then came in again, fast. Kelly fired again, and the bear went down, rolled down slope and came to a halt, motionless.

 
We have found one case where .454 Casull revolver was used to defend against a bear. It was successful.

AK, Kenai Peninsula, Charging Brown Bear Stopped with Ruger .454 Casull, 2 August, 2009

Because of many bear-related incidents in this area, Brush always has brown bears on his mind…even when walking a well-maintained road. On just such a road, less than 500 yards from his house, Brush stopped when he heard a twig snap behind him. Turning his head toward the sound, Brush saw a monstrous brown bear charging toward him. "There was no warning," he stresses. "None of the classic teeth-popping or woofing, raising up on hind legs, or bluff-charging that you read about. When I spotted him he was within 15 yards, his head down and his ears pinned back. He was coming like a freight train…in total chase-mode."

Brush instinctively back-pedaled to avoid the charge, drawing the Ruger from its holster. "I fired from the hip as he closed the distance," Brush recalls. "I know I missed the first shot, but I clearly hit him after that. I believe I fired four or five shots. "

Brush finally fell on his back on the edge of the road. Miraculously, the bear collapsed a mere five feet from his boot soles, leaving claw marks in the road where Brush had--only seconds before--been standing. The bear was moaning, his huge head still moving, as Brush aimed the Ruger to fire a finishing shot. "By then my gun had jammed," Greg says. "I frantically called my wife on my cell phone and told her to bring a rifle. When she arrived I finished the bear."

 We have found three cases where the handguns used used to defend against bears were not identified. All were successful. 

1. On the same day, another bear attack (Tom Miner Basin) and pistol defense of Roman Morris From mtstandard.com: October 6, 2007

‘‘It charged down the hill and just drilled me,’’ said Morris, 21, of Whitewater.

Over the next 30 to 45 seconds, Morris fought with the bear as it bit and clawed, severed his left hamstring, punctured his shoulder, chomped at his head and tossed him around.

‘‘I thought the whole time, This is so messed up. I’m going to die, I’m going to die,’’’ said Morris, a pre-med major.

The bear ran off after a friend fired a pistol. Morris underwent surgery at a Livingston hospital and was recuperating Monday at his brother’s house in Helena.

2. Massachusetts: Handgun Defense against Black Bear (Nov 2014)

 WEST SPRINGFIELD - A Sikes Avenue man shot and killed a black bear with single pistol-shot to the head Friday night after it started to go after his small dog, police said.

3. AZ: Bow Hunter Uses Handgun to Stop Unprovoked Bear Attack In Sept, 2016

PAYSON, AZ - Authorities found two bear cubs after an archery deer hunter fatally shot an adult female bear with a handgun when it charged him in the Payson area.

There were three cases where combined arms were used to defend against bears. The two with both rifle and pistol calibers are included in the interest of complete data reporting, but are not used in the determination of the success rate. The one case with .357 and .44 magnum pistols is included in the 35 pistol cases. All three cases were successful.

1. Black Bear, wounded with .338 rifle; Glide, Oregon 31 May, 2008 .45 pistol and .44 magnum revolver

GLIDE, Ore. — Aaron Wyckoff didn’t start to panic until his .45-caliber pistol quit firing, and the bear kept chewing on his arm.

So, he recalls, he tried to pull the bear’s jaws apart. Then he tried to roll down the ridge where he and the bear were wrestling. But the bear grabbed his calf, pulled him back and went for his groin.

Wyckoff said he countered by shoving his pistol and his hand into the bear’s mouth. But by then, the struggle in the Cascade Range in Southern Oregon attracted the attention of Wyckoff’s party, and other hunters rushed over.

Justin Norton fired a round from his .44-caliber pistol into the black bear’s stomach, to no avail. He approached the bear, put the gun behind its ear and fired again. It finally rolled away.

“I walked right up to his head, and he didn’t even look at me,” said Norton, 26.

With the dying bear still struggling, a final round finished him off.

“He was dead. He just didn’t know it,” Wyckoff said. “It was just all adrenaline.”

Wyckoff was helping friends track a wounded bear May 31 on the last day of the hunting season.

Fifteen-year-old Chris Moen of Glide, who had drawn the tag, hit the animal in the shoulder with a .338-caliber rifle round, but he and his father couldn’t pick up a trail of blood.

In this account, the pistol is revealed to be a Llama .45 with a 3.25 inch barrel. From shootersforum.com.


2. September 2010, Elk Hunters at Bruin Creek, Thorofare Country, Wyoming .44 magnums, .45-70 rifle

Ten minutes later another grizzly approached.

“The grizzly bear appeared to be heading towards the elk carcass and them, but they did not shoot at the time, instead they watched it in the hope it would go by the three of them,” the investigation said.

But the second grizzly, also a boar, didn’t veer away, the hunters reported. When it got within 10 feet of one of the men the entire party opened fire, letting loose nine rounds from two .44 magnum revolvers and the .45-70 rifle.

Only two of the shots connected, a necropsy would later determine.

3. Thorofare Country south of Yellowstone, Grizzly at 10 feet, .44 magnum and .357 magnum, September, 2013 (report from 2015)

Then at about 2:45 p.m., a collared boar grizzly identified as bear No. 764 came uncomfortably close. The group’s canister of bear spray was in a backpack by their horses. A warning shot went off, but the big grizzly didn’t turn back. “The bear stood up and growled, like something you would see in a movie,” an eyewitness later told investigators. From less than 10 feet away, the guide and camp worker drew their .44 and .357 magnum revolvers and together fired four times, ending the 17-year-old bear’s life.

To summarize, we have found 37 verified cases where pistols were used to defend against bear attacks. Included, for complete data reporting, are two cases where bears were shot at with both rifles and pistols, making it difficult to determine the efficacy of pistols alone.

Of the 35 strictly pistol defense cases, one was a clear failure. That is the use of the .357 against an Alaskan grizzly by a geologist on 20 June, 2010. It is likely the bear was not hit in that incident.

There are four successful defenses with 9 mm pistols. The three grizzly bears were killed, the black bear was wounded and ran off.

Two of the three uses of the .357 were successful. One was against a grizzly that was stopped with one shot, but then escaped. The other grizzly was killed with six shots fired.

There were three uses of .40 caliber pistols, all against black bears, all successful, all of the bears were killed.

There was one use of a 10 mm pistol against a grizzly. 4 or 5 shots were fired.  It was successful and the bear was killed.

There were two uses of .41 magnum revolvers. Both were against grizzly bears, both were successful and the bears were killed.

There were twelve uses of .44 magnum revolvers. All were successful. One was against a black bear, it was mortally wounded but finished off with shotgun slugs. Eleven were against grizzly bears.  Two were driven of with "warning shots". One was driven off, without evidence of being wounded.  One was wounded and not recovered.  One was wounded and finished off at the scene with a shotgun slug. Six were killed without further assistance.

There were four uses of .45 caliber pistols against bears. All were successful. One was against a black bear, which was killed with additional shots, probably from another handgun. The other three were grizzly bears killed with multiple hits from the .45 caliber pistols.

There was one use of a .45 Super pistol. It was successful. The grizzly bear was killed with one shot.

There was one use of a .454 Casull revolver. 4 or 5 shots were fired and the grizzly bear was finished off at the scene with a rifle brought by the defenders wife.

There were three cases of pistol defenses against bears where the pistol caliber was not identified.  One was a grizzly, which ran off. It was not determined if the bear was wounded or not. The other two were black bears that were killed with the pistol fire.

There was one case where both .357 magnum and .44 magnum revolvers were used. The grizzly bear was killed.

In total, there were 8 defenses against black bears and 27 defenses against grizzly bears.

One pistol failure out of 35 cases translates to a 97% success rate for the use of handguns against bears.

Successful bear defenses with a pistol are probably under reported, much like successful firearm defenses against criminals. If a predatory black bear is shot and runs off, there are strong incentives for the shooter not to report the incident.  Incidents where no human is injured are seldom considered news. This creates a strong selection bias against successful pistol defenses against bears.

Predatory black bear attacks are the most common fatal black bear attacks in North America.  Only 8 of the pistol defenses listed above are defenses against black bears, or 23%. It is reasonable to believe there should be about twice that number.  Black bear predatory attacks often give potential victims good opportunities to use a pistol effectively.

I have two reported instances of successful bear defenses with a .38 special revolver. One against a black bear, and one against a grizzly. I have not been able to verify either. I have found two more reported cases of the successful use of the 10 mm pistol, and one more for the .357 magnum, but have not been able to verify them.

Even in the age of the Internet, reports can become difficult to find after a few years. I recall an incident where an Alaskan State Trooper killed a grizzly bear with his duty pistol, while an associate with a 12 gauge shotgun did not fire. I have not been able to find that report. It may have been the 2013 incident where unarmed Thomas Puerta was killed and eaten. I am not certain.

If anyone has sources for that incident, or of others not recorded here, either successes or failures, please let us know.

Pistol defense failures against bears should be widely reported. When humans are injured by bears, it is news.

In this compilation of incidents, one was a failure. The .357 magnum was fired three times. The shooter was mauled after the first shot and after the second and third shots. It seems likely the shooter missed with all three shots. It is the only bear defense with a pistol, that failed, that we have found.

One failure out of 35 incidents is better than a 97% success rate for pistol defenses against bears.  Using a pistol to defend against bear attacks seems to be a viable option.

The often cited Efficacy of firearms for bear deterrence in Alaska by Tom S. Smith, Stephen Herrero, and others, included 37 instances of a handgun being present when a bear attacked a human.  The instances collected were from 1883 to 2009.  They recorded 6 failures to stop the attack out of the 37 instances. That is an 84% success rate. Pistol and ammunition technology have greatly improved since 1883.

The authors of the Efficacy of firearms have not released their data.  There could be as many as six instances of overlap between the Efficacy of firearms data set and our collection, so a combination of the data is not useful unless the Effficacy of firearms data set is released. We cannot know how many of the six "failures" of the efficacy study might be because the handgun was never attempted to be used, was unable to be accessed because it was buried in a pack, or for other reasons.

All of the instances cited in this article can be verified independently.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

NRA Reinforces Carry at Annual Meeting Scheduled for Dallas

During the 2018 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, lawfully carried firearms will be permitted in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and the Omni Dallas Hotel in accordance with Texas law. When carrying your firearm remember to follow all federal, state, and local laws.
Source

OK: Suspect with Sawed Off Shotgun Shot by Armed Woman

The Tulsa Police Department has identified the man accused of attempting to rob a Tulsa liquor store Thursday evening before he was shot multiple times by a clerk.


Tyrone Lee, who is either 36 or 37, remains in the hospital, according to Tulsa robbery Sgt. Brandon Watkins.


Watkins said Lee was using a shotgun to rob Forest Acres Liquor, 1275 S. Memorial Drive, when a woman who was working there pulled out her own gun and shot him Thursday night.
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The Media has Blood on its Hands in Florida Mass Murder

Another mass killing has taken place in the defenseless victim zone of a Florida high school in the Miami metropolitan area of Broward County.

The major media in this country has blood on its hands. They know that mass killers are incentivised by media coverage that gives a form of immortallity to the deranged killers. The pattern is clear.  Many of the killers are open about their desire for infamy. The Port Arther murderer asked his lawyer, again and again: "Did I break the record?".

The media does not care how many innocents die because of their push for ratings and to further their agenda to disarm the population. 

Once again, a disturbed teenager has become a copy-cat killer, following the narrative and fame the media has been pushing for a couple of decades.

These mass shootings come in clusters, as the killers are incentivized by the promise of fame the media provides, in their rush to push for restrictions on firearm ownership.

There are numerous ways the media can cover school shootings while providing little incentive for more school shooters. The media has been told, again and again, how it could be done.  Clayton Cramer wrote a paper on this in 1993.   It was published in a the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 9:1 [Winter 1993-94].  It won First Place, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Ethics Prize, 1993, Undergraduate Division.

These mass killings receive far more media attention than comparable mass killings involving other instruments, such as arson, automobiles, knives, or other items. The mass murderss would be substantially reduced if the media followed a few  guidelines recommended by Loren Coleman in his book, The Copycat Effect, in 2004.  The book details strategies for reducing incentives for mass killings. 

(1) The media must be more aware of the power of their words. Using language like "successful" sniper attacks, suicides, and bridge jumpers, and "failed" murder-suicides, for example, clearly suggest to viewers and readers that someone should keep trying again until they "succeed." We may wish to "succeed" in relationships, sports, and jobs, but we do not want rampage or serial killers, architects of murder-suicide, and suicide bombers to make further attempts after "failing." Words are important. Even the use of "suicide" or "rampage" in headlines, news alerts, and breaking bulletins should be reconsidered.

(2) The media must drop their clichéd stories about the "nice boy next door" or the "lone nut." The copycat violent individual is neither mysterious nor healthy, or usually an overachiever. They are often a fatal combination of despondency, depression, and mental illness. School shooters are suicidal youth that slipped through the cracks, but it is a complex issue, nevertheless. People are not simple. The formulaic stories are too often too simplistic.

(3) The media must cease its graphic and sensationalized wall-to-wall commentary and coverage of violent acts and the details of the actual methods and places where they occur. Photographs of murder victims, tapes of people jumping off bridges, and live shots of things like car chases ending in deadly crashes, for example, merely glamorize these deaths, and create models for others ­ down to the method, the place, the timing, and the type of individual involved. Even fictional entertainment, such as the screening of The Deer Hunter, provides vivid copycatting stimuli for vulnerable, unstable, angry, and depressed individuals. 

(4) The media should show more details about the grief of the survivors and victims (without glorifying the death), highlight the alternatives to the violent acts, and mention the relevant background traits that may have brought this event to this deathly end. They should also avoid setting up the incident as a logical or reasonable way to solve a problem.

(5) The media must avoid ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural stereotypes in portraying the victims or the perpetrators. Why set up situations that like-minded individuals (e.g. neo-Nazis) can use as a roadmap for a future rampages against similar victims?

(6) The media should never publish a report on suicide or murder-suicide without adding the protective factors, such as the contact information for hot lines, help lines, soft lines, and other available community resources, including email addresses, websites, and phone numbers. To run a story on suicide or a gangland murder without thinking about the damage the story can do is simply not responsible. It¹s like giving a child a loaded gun. The media should try to balance such stories with some concern and consideration for those who may use it to imitate the act described.

(7) And finally, the media should reflect more on their role in creating our increasingly violent society. Honest reporting on the positive nature of being alive in the twenty-first century might actually decrease the negative outcomes of the copycat effect, and create a wave of self-awareness that this life is rather good after all. Most of our lives are mundane, safe, and uneventful. This is something that an alien watching television news from outer space, as they say, would never know. The media should "get real," and try to use their influence and the copycat effect to spread a little peace, rather than mayhem.

In Australia, once the media there achieved extreme gun controls, it stopped the incentives for mass murder by shooting. Mass murder by shooting, always extremely rare in in Australia, was reduced.

David Kopel, published in the Wall Street Journal, wrote about the copycat effect and Coleman's book in December of 2012. 

The media cynically benefits from coverage of these events.  The media benefit from ratings and from politicization of the event.  They use these events to further their agenda to impose more restrictions on gun ownership and use.  The restrictions desired seldom have a relationship to the mass killings.

Semi-automatic rifles existed in the United States for over a hundred years. Mass murder with them increased in the last 20, as the Media has pushed the narrative.

How much more blood will be on media hands before they stop using these events to promote their political agenda?  How many more innocents will be considered to be "collateral damage" in their push for citizen disarmament?



©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Florida Legislature Moves to Stop Legalized Theft of Firearms

Law enforcement officers will impound firearms, when no crime has been committed. This is driven by a fear of "not doing enough" combined with the demonization of firearms.

Law enforcement timidity and fear of litigation have combined to legalize the theft of firearms.

In Florida and many other states, it is a common problem that harms numerous innocent victims.  Often, the victims have no choice. The guns are taken by force. Other victims are asked for permission, but not warned of the consequences of agreeing to the request by law enforcement. Here is an example out of Florida: From wfsu.org:

“The son—being vindictive—called law enforcement, and said, ‘my father threatened to commit suicide,’” said Byrd. “Law enforcement went out to the home, talked to the father, no one was using drugs, no threats had been made, [and] there was no alcohol. They said, ‘hey, do you have any firearms in the home? Let’s just make sure everything’s calmed down.’ He said, ‘ yes,’ and turned over the firearms. A few days pass, he goes to get them back, and then they said, ‘we need a court order.’ So, he hired an attorney, filed the court order, and the Sheriff’s office came in and had no objection. They didn’t say, hey, we still think there’s a problem.’ They just didn’t object.”

To get his gun back, Byrd’s client had to pay a court filing fee of $400, and thousands of dollars more in attorney’s fees.

The client was never warned. He was trying to be a good citizen and cooperate with the officers. For his cooperation, his property was taken and the agency would not return it. The reason usually given is that the agency fears liability action if they return the property without a court order. In Florida, the law requires a court order, when a "breach of peace" is specified.

Florida Representative Cord Byrd, (R)- Neptune Beach, has introduced legislation to rectify this system of legalized theft of firearms.  The bill, H6013, removes the Florida provision requiring a court order to return a firearm whether the firearm was taken by an officer with or without a search warrant, upon viewing a breach of peace.

The "breach of peace" statute is being used in Florida to justify the impounding of the firearms and failing to return them unless a court order is obtained.  Many firearms cost less than $400. The filing fee alone, for a legal action, costs $400. "Breach of the Peace" has become an easy way to legally steal firearms.

At least one Democrat likes the current system and wants to keep it, because it does not require an actual crime, or any due process, to confiscate the firearms.

Still, Rep. Cynthia Stafford (D-Miami) says some “domestic violence” disturbances could fall under the “breaching the peace.” That’s because law enforcement may respond to a call—disturbing the peace—involving an abuser who may not be charged with a crime.

“What if there is no civil injunction, or no type of protective order in place,” she asked. “And, there is a 911 call, domestic violence, there’s a weapon in the house, law enforcement arrives, there’s no arrests made, they take the gun…so, they’re to then give it back when they just had a dv call, even though there’s no arrest made, again?

 Representative Stafford appears to love hypotheticals. What if...  In the rule of law with due process, the hypothetical "what if" is not valid. With the scenario she has created, anyone could simply phone in a domestic violence call, and have an innocent person's property confiscated.

These sort of situations happen all the time. There is virtually no practical recourse for the person who is victimized. There is almost never prosecution for the people who make false calls.

Representative Cord Byrd's bill H6013, has passed the Florida House, 88 to 74. It still needs to be introduced in the Senate.  If it is introduced there, and passed, it will need to be signed by the Governor.

H6013 has a long way to go.



©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

TX; Gunfight, Homeowner Wounds Suspect

According to police, a homeowner was confronted by someone who shot at him while he was still in his vehicle. The shot missed, and the homeowner then produced his own handgun and fired back, hitting the intruder.

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WA: Homeowner Shoots Burglary Suspect

The homeowner, who did not want to release his name, told KIRO 7 it was terrifying to come face to face with the suspect around 2:18 a.m. Monday morning. According to investigators, the man and his wife were sleeping in their house with their infant and toddler when they heard noises and footsteps outside and saw an exterior motion light turn on. The man went to his children's bedroom and saw an unknown man standing in the window well.

"My wife and I are still kind of in shock," he says, "I opened a curtain and there was a threat immediately in my face."

He pulled back the curtain and saw the suspect was crouched down with his face within inches of the glass, detectives said. After reportedly yelling at the suspect to stop, the homeowner fired four shots at the suspect, hitting him twice. He told deputies he was in fear for his family's safety.
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Michigan Concealed Pistol Licensees Increase 25% in 14 Months

On 3 May, 2015, Governor Rick Snyder signed a sweeping reform of the Concealed Pistol License laws into effect. While much of the law went into effect immediately, the reform that removed the power of county gun boards to arbitrarily deny concealed pistol licenses did not go into full effect until 1 December, 2016.  Coincident with the reform, the number of CPLs have increased dramatically. From mlive.com:

Michigan has seen a 25% increase in concealed pistol licenses in 14 months, when state law changed to make it easier to get a CPL.

A total of 621,327 Michigan residents had a concealed pistol license as of Feb. 1 compared to 497,016 as of Dec. 1, 2016, according to Michigan State Police data.

Dec. 1, 2016, was the effective date of a state law eliminating county gun boards that ruled on CPL applications. The boards could deny a permit if they determined the license would be detrimental to the safety of the applicant or any other person.

Under the new law, county clerks and the Michigan State Police are now responsible for processing concealed weapon applications.

In 2018, there are 7.24 million people in Michigan over the age of 21. Of those, .621 million have Concealed Pistol Licenses (CPL).  On average 8.6% of Michigan residents over the age of 21 have a CPL.

Other reforms passed in the 2015 law were:

• No charge for second set of fingerprints if required by the state.
• If no permit or disqualification in 45 days, receipt acts as permit.
• Plastic, not paper used for the permit material
• Notification of expiration 3-6 months before expiration  
• Allow online application of renewal
• Active duty military and reserves to be able to apply for renewal by mail if on duty outside the state.
• Expiration date of permit extended if renewal made in time.
• Range time for renewal requirement met with certification on renewal form that applicants have complied with 3 hours review of training, 1 hour range time, within 6 months of renewal.
• Record keeping by the State patrol of offenses committed by license holders.

In November of 2016, Hillary Clinton received 2,268,839 votes for president. Donald Trump received 2,279,543 votes for president, winning with a margin of 10,704 votes.

President Trump campaigned on strong support of the Second Amendment, and particularly support for concealed carry reciprocity across the United States.

An increase of 124,311 CPLs in Michigan suggests an increasing base for President Trump in the state.  Much may depend on how President Trump treats Second Amendment and national reciprocity issues in the months ahead.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

CO: Homeowner Shoots Home Invasion Suspect Being Held for Police

GREELEY, Colo. — A man suspected of forcing his way into a residence was shot by a homeowner while being held at gunpoint as his wife called 911 early Monday morning, the Greeley Police Department said.
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WA: Gunfight, Father Shoots, Kills 1 of 3 Suspects who Fired into his Home

The caller told police his teenage son received a threat overnight stating that someone was going to “shoot up the house.”

Wednesday morning, the father told police, several people pulled into his driveway and at least one of the passengers fired multiple times at his mobile home, hitting the bedroom area of the trailer.

The father said he fired back at the suspects, striking one of them.

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PA: Investigation Continues of Homeowner Shooting at Suspect

The homeowner, first, seeing only one suspect in his backyard. That suspect reportedly directed a second hidden suspect in the garage to shoot; that's when the homeowner fired one shot.

Deputy Chief Mike Nolan of the EPD says, "we don't have any indication that they were armed but what the homeowner stated, he was in fear of death or bodily injury. According to what he said, it doesn't seem unreasonable but we are still investigating".
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