RICHARDSON (CBSNewsTexas.com) - A homeowner in Richardson shot a burglar in the 1600 block of Barclay Drive on June 26.
The
shooting happened during a physical fight between the homeowner and
thief just before 9 a.m. Another family member told police they found
the suspect going through their belongings. After the burglar was shot,
he ran from the home, got into a car driven by another suspect and they
drove away.
Seven times as many people have been killed by bears, when bear spray has been sprayed in defense, than have been killed by bears when a handgun has been fired in defense.
Any comparison of the efficacy of bear spray and firearms is difficult. There are many variables. The data is subject to selection bias. The analysis of the data is subject to confirmation bias. Similar problems exist with defensive uses of firearms.
Fatal bear attacks are less subject to selection bias, because nearly all fatal bear attacks are recorded.
We nearly always know when bear spray was sprayed in a fatal bear attack. We nearly always know when a handgun was fired during a fatal bear attack. This correspondent and colleagues have collected all the incidents where handguns have been fired in defense against bears, which we can document, since 1890. We have published records of the 170 documented cases. We have not collected documented records of when bear spray was sprayed in defense against bears.
We cannot objectively compare the efficacy of bear spray to handguns in general, because there are many, probably a large majority, of attacks/conflicts which are not documented and which will never be documented, for both bear spray and handguns.
Failed attempts to defend against bears are much more likely to be recorded than successful defenses.
Failures in defense against bears are news. Most of them are recorded. It is reasonable to assume the vast majority of fatal failures of either handguns or bear spray are recorded.
Since 1890, we have documented one incident where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear and a person was killed. The incident was in the Svalbard Archipelago, in 1995.
The numbers are very small. Very few people are killed by bears in a given year. Bear spray has only been commercially available since 1986. Cartridge handguns have been commercially available since about 1860. Since 1986 there have been seven incidents where bear spray was sprayed in defense against bears and a person was killed.
Here are the seven incidents.
The first incident was in 2003. Vitaly Nikolayenko was killed and partly consumed by a European brown bear (grizzly bear) in Russia, after Nikolayenko had sprayed bear spray.
The second incident was when Erin Johnson was killed by a black bear near the Pogo Mine in Alaska, after the bear was sprayed with bear spray, in 2017.
The third incident was when Mark Uptain was killed by a grizzly bear in Wyoming, after spraying bear spray, on September 14, 2018.
The fourth incident happened on July 29, 2020, when Daniel Schilling was killed by a bear or bears while clearing a trail near his home in Alaska. Both black bear and grizzly bear DNA was found at the site.
The fifth incident occurred August 27, 2020 when Curtis Blaise used bear spray on the black bear which was attacking his wife Stephanie at McKie Lake in northern Saskatchewan. When the bear spray proved ineffective, Curtis retrieved a rifle and killed the bear, but the bear had already killed Stephanie Blaise. Some might argue the rifle failed to stop the attack in time as well. The rifle could not have stopped the fatality as Stephanie was already dead when the rifle was used. This incident is the least clear of the documented failed bear spray defenses.
The sixth incident occurred on April 15, 2021 when Carl Mock was killed by a grizzly bear near the border of Yellowstone National Park, after spraying the bear with bear spray.
The seventh incident happened on July 6, 2021, when Leah Lokan was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear in Ovando, Montana. She was pulled from her tent after using bear spray to defend herself.
Bear spray became commercially available in 1986. The use of bear spray received a boost with the paper on the effectiveness of bear spray by Smith and Herrero in 2008. In a study of 72 incidents where bears were sprayed, 25 involved aggressive bears. The authors judged bear spray to be 92% effective in the 72 incidents. None of the people involved in the incidents were hunting. 21 of the 72 incidents (29%) involved hazing of bears by park personnel. The sound bite, magnified by the media, was different. From the Efficacy of Bear Spray in Alaska:
Although bear spray was 92% effective by our definition of success, it is important to note that 98% of persons carrying it were uninjured after a close encounter with bears.
Why is it important to note 98% of persons carrying bear spray were uninjured after a close encounter with bears? The sentence separates carrying bear spray from using bear spray.
Most close human/bear encounters do not result in injury, likely well over 99%.
It is uncontroversial most close encounters with bears do not result in humans being injured. It is likely over 99% of people carrying firearms are uninjured after a close encounter with bears. There are thousands of close encounters with bears every year, but only about 50 human injuries.
The 98% figure has been repeated over and over in the media. Of the 25 cases involving aggressive bears in the bear spray paper, three people were injured, even though the injuries did not require hospitalization.
The huge promotion of bear spray came after the "Efficacy of Firearms" paper by Smith and Herrero in 2012.
In 2012, Smith and Herrero authored a paper about bears and firearms, Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska. The study preferentially included incidents of bear and human conflicts which resulted in human injury. They authors said they were specifically searching for bear attacks in books and the media. The results claimed long guns were only successful 76% of the time, and handguns were successful 84% of the time. The paper stated there was no statistical difference in the rate of injuries whether firearms were fired or not.
The paper indicated firearms were ineffective in numerous cases where the firearms were not fired. The reasons given for failure of firearms included these: lack of time to respond to the bear - 27%; did not use the firearm - 21%; the bear was too close to deploy the firearm - 9%; Safety was engaged and the person was unable to unlock it in time - 8%. These are percentages of the failures, not of total incidents. Added together, they indicate a failure was counted, without the firearm being fired, 65% of the time. There were 48 recorded failures where the firearm was identified as a long gun or a handgun. If 65% of incidents where a firearm was not fired are removed, there are 17 failures instead of 48. The total firearm success rate for long guns and handguns together changes from 77% to 93%
Outdoor writer Wes Siler became skeptical of the 98% figure in the bear spray paper and interviewed Tom Smith, one of the authors of both papers. In the interview, Tom Smith directly says the 2008 study of bear spray in Alaska and the 2012 study on firearms in Alaska were never meant to be compared to each other. From the article:
“There was no thought of comparing the two [studies], though some do that,” says Tom Smith, who authored both reports, titled the “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska” and “Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska.”
The actual words in the 2012 paper sound different. From Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska, bold added:
The need for split-second deployment and deadly accuracy make using firearms difficult, even for experts. Consequently, we advise people to carefully consider their ability to be accurate under duress before carrying a firearm for protection from bears. No one should enter bear country without a deterrent and these results show that firearms are not a clear choice. We encourage all persons,with or without a firearm, to consider carrying a non-lethal deterrent such as bear spray because its success rate under a variety of situations has been greater (i.e., 90% successful for all 3 North American species of bear; Smith et al. 2008) than those we observed for firearms.
Six of the seven fatal attacks where bear spray was used occurred after Smith and Herrero published "Efficacy of Firearms" in 2012. The paper claimed bear spray was more effective than firearms in deterring bear attacks, and especially in preventing injuries by bears.
The problems of access to a defensive weapon, whether bear spray, a handgun, a long gun, or edged weapons, are very similar, especially handguns, bear spray and knives. Handguns have had a long history where holsters and handguns have evolved to make access and use easy, quick and intuitive. Bear spray has not. In "Efficacy of Firearms" Smith and Herrero make this claim:
The need for split-second deployment and deadly accuracy make using firearms difficult, even for experts.
The claim is an opinion. It is not based on evidence. Because "Efficacy of Firearms" relied on reports of attacks, there is strong selection bias against effective defenses. Defensive actions, where no human was hurt, are seldom reported and recorded.
In our research on defensive uses of handguns, there are many, many instances where handguns are successfully used to stop aggressive bears and split second deployment and deadly accuracy were not necessary.
Focusing on incidents where attacks make the news biases the results toward incidents were defense was difficult and or failed. When human defenders easily drive off or kill an aggressive bear, without human injury, the case is seldom reported or recorded.
Fatal attacks by bears are rare. They are nearly always reported, investigations are done, and the public finds out if firearms were fired or bear spray sprayed.
Since bear spray became commercially available in 1986, seven individuals have been killed by a bear or bears in an incident where bear spray was sprayed. Of all the incidents we have been able to document of handguns being fired in defense against bears, one person was killed by a bear.
Have there been seven times as many serious attacks by bears against people spraying bear spray as have occurred against people firing handguns?
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — A homeowner shot and killed a man who broke into her house, according to Amarillo police.
Around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, police responded to a residential burglary in the 1700 block of N. Adams.
When officers arrived, they found the body of 53-year-old Cedric Milligan.
The woman who shot him said Milligan broke into her home.
On June 13, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to overturn the proposed rule of the BATF, which is set to make the possession of pistols with a pistol brace installed a federal felony, punishable with up to a $10,000 fine and or ten years in prison. The vote was almost entirely on party lines, passing 218 to 210. Two Democrats voted for the resolution and two Republicans voted against it.
On Friday, 23 June, 2023, the Senate voted against H.J. Resolution 44, by a razor thin 50 to 49. Three Senators, where were considered possible swing votes, voted against the resolution. Two more votes would have been necessary to pass the resolution. A tie vote would almost certainly have been broken by Vice President Harris, against the measure. The three swing votes were Senators Tester from Montana, Manchin from West Virginia, and Sinema from Arizona. Senators Baldwin (D-WI), Brown (D-OH), Casey (D-PA) were candidates to vote for the measure, because they will be coming up for election in 2024. All voted against it.
The vote was for House Joint Resolution 44 :
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled, That Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives relating to "Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached 'Stabilinzing Braces'" (ATF final rule 2021R-08F), and such rule shall have no force or effect.
The ATF rule reversed a decade of ATF policy where they assured purchasers and manufacturers of pistol braces such items were legal and not regulated by the NFA.
Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman voted for the resolution. From her office:
“This latest unconstitutional rule from the A.T.F. is a blatant attempt
to take away our 2nd Amendment rights and strip away the ability to
defend ourselves”, said Hageman. “Should this rule be implemented, the
A.T.F. would instantaneously transform millions of law-abiding citizens
into potential criminals, threatening their freedom, property, and lives
in the process.
The rule proposed by the ATF extends the reach of the National Firearms Act to handguns which have barrels less than 16 inches and are equipped with a stabilizing brace.
When the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration wrote the original legislation in 1934, short barreled rifles were not included. The principle targets of the legislation were handguns and short barreled shotguns, and such items when equipped with silencers. Because of the confused statements of Minnesota Congressman Harold Knutson, rifles were added to the list of handguns, revolvers, and shotguns which were to be taxed out of existence if their barrels were less than 16 inches. Knutson was a member of the Ways and Means committee. Knutson requested the barrel length be extended to 18 inches. From the hearing:
Mr.KNUTSON. General, would there be any objection, on
page 1, line 4, after the word” shotgun” to add the words” or rifle”
having a barrel less than 18 inches? The reason I ask that is I happen
to come from a section of the State where deer hunting is a very popular
pastime in the fall of the year and, of course, I would not like to
pass any legislation to forbid or make it impossible for our people to
keep arms that would permit them to hunt deer.Attorney General CUMMINGS. Well, as long as it is not mentioned at all, it would not interfere at all.
Mr. KNUTSON. It seems to me that an 18 -inch barrel would make
this provision stronger than 16 inches, knowing what I do about
firearms.Attorney General CUMMINGS. Well, there is no objection as far as
we are concerned to including rifles after the word” shotguns” if you
desire.
Sawed off shotguns had been demonized by the media of the time. Short barreled rifles were not considered a problem. Several manufacturers made rifles with less than 18 inch barrels. They were very popular as boys rifles.
The NRA and numerous sportsman's groups made their objections known to Congress in 1934. Pistols were removed from the legislation. As a consolation prize, the FDR passed the legislation placing prohibitive taxes and administrative procedures on short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, silencers, and machine guns.
The prohibition of short barreled rifles and shotguns makes no sense when everyone agrees handguns are protected by the Second Amendment. A pistol brace, when attached to a handgun, makes it harder to conceal. Handguns are preferred for crime because they are easier to conceal. Shoulder stocks had been accepted accessories for pistols since pistols became available. It wasn't until 1961, decades after the passage of the National Firearms Act in 1934, when the ATF formally created a rule finding a pistol with a shoulder stock attached was held to be a short barreled rifle. The ATF quickly removed Mauser and Luger pistols with shoulder stocks from consideration, by classifying them outside the NFA, as "curios and relics".
Several court cases are challenging the ATF rule on pistol braces. The rule may be struck down in the courts.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
The deceased woman, who has been identified as 44-year-old East Long Beach resident Andrew Powell, was fatally shot as she was charging towards the armed homeowner, police said.
"He was trying to protect himself and the other neighbors as well," said one resident Eileen Gelso, who says that Powell was banging on doors over and over demanding money. "She was definitely dangerous. I believe that."
The
homeowner was detained and officers recovered his handgun from the
scene, but after gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses, he was
released.
The number of legal suppressors or silencers in the United States shows they are in common use for lawful purposes. As of January of 2023, the ATF shows there were over 3.1 million silencers or suppressors legally owned in the United States, for lawful purposes. In January of 2020, there were 1.8 million Over the last three years, the number of legal suppressors has increased by an average of 450,000 suppressors per year. By the end of 2023, it is reasonably expected there will be over 3.6 million suppressors in the United States of America. To own these suppressors, the owners have gone through a complicated and lengthy process, often taking a year or more to process their applications for tax stamps. The tax stamps are required by the federal government to legally purchase a silencer.
The Heller decision was the first in a series of Supreme Court decisions restoring Second Amendment protections for the right to keep and bear arms.
From Heller, the only weapons allowed to be banned must be both dangerous and unusual. Weapons which are in common use can not be considered unusual. Stephen Halbrook sums up the common use precedent from Heller:
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects “arms ‘in common use at the time’ for lawful purposes like self-defense” and arms that are “typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” Such arms are “chosen by American society,” not the government.
American society chooses what arms are in common use. The government does not do the choosing. By choosing to possess arms, the people choose what is in common use. It is the possession of the arms which determine whether they are in common use or not. Possession of arms is a use of the arms. In Heller, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled:
the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.
In the Caetano decision, the Heller pronouncement was emphasized and magnified. When an arm was invented has nothing to do with whether it is protected under the Second Amendment. What matters is if the arm is in common use for lawful purposes. This was particularly emphasized by Justice Alito and Justice Thomas. From Caetano, concurrence by Justice Alito, joined with Justice Thomas:
The more relevant statistic is that “[h]undreds of thousands of Tasers and stun guns have been sold to private citizens,” who it appears may lawfully possess them in 45 States. People v. Yanna, 297 Mich. App. 137, 144, 824 N. W. 2d 241, 245 (2012) (holding Michigan stun gun ban unconstitutional); see Volokh, Nonlethal Self-Defense, (Almost Entirely) Nonlethal Weapons, and the Rights To Keep and Bear Arms and Defend Life, 62 Stan. L. Rev. 199, 244 (2009) (citing stun gun bans in seven States); Wis. Stat. §941.295 (Supp. 2015) (amended Wisconsin law permitting stun gun possession); see also Brief in Opposition 11 (acknowledging that “approximately 200,000 civilians owned stun guns” as of 2009). While less popular than handguns, stun guns are widely owned and accepted as a legitimate means of self-defense across the country. Massachusetts’ categorical ban of such weapons therefore violates the Second Amendment.
This was the first time SCOTUS put a number on what is "common use". 200,000 items in possession in the United States of America may be considered high by some, but applies to many items. When legal suppressors were nearly banned by taxes of ten times the price of the item ($20 would buy most suppressors; the tax was/is $200), there were far fewer of them. In 2006, there were 150 thousand legally owned silencers in the USA. Sometime between 2006 and 2011, the 200 thousand mark was passed. BATF records do not seem to be available from 2006 to 2010. In 2011, there were 285 thousand legal silencers.
The BATF and Biden administration's strategy is to claim silencers are not "arms", but are only an accessory. It is difficult to see how they can claim silencers are not "arms" but are very dangerous.
The Texas case, Paxton v. Richardson appears to be the most likely case to resolve this issue, at this time. In the case, Texas Attorney General Paxton has argued the common use, Second Amendment case, as well as persuasive arguments against the use of taxation to attack rights protected by the Second Amendment.
The parties cross-motions for summary judgement in the case were heard by Judge Mark Pitmann on June 15, 2023.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A resident at Turnberry Towers near Karen and Paradise is calling a building employee a hero after a gunman walked in and fired shots at the front desk on Friday.
Channel 13 spoke with the resident to get their story. Law enforcement has not confirmed the following details.
According to the resident, a man wearing a helmet had an AR-15 and other weapons when he entered the towers Friday afternoon.
After having ruled pistol braces to be legal accessories for a decade, the ATF has issued a rule many, if not most pistol braces, will be considered contraband, which make a pistol into a short barreled rifle. Under the theory of "constructive possession", possession of a banned pistol brace and a pistol the brace will fit, could be enough for arrest and conviction of possession of a short barreled rifle, with penalties of up to a $10,000 fine and or up to ten years in prison.
Under the Supreme Court decision United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co., the possession of parts which can be assembled into a pistol, a rifle or a short barreled rifle do not equate to the possession of a short barreled rifle, because of the rule of lenity and the ambiguity of the statute. The case was decided in 1992. You may convert a pistol to a rifle and back again. However, the ATF has ruled you may not convert a rifle to a pistol and back again. From the decision:
Respondent manufactures the "Contender" pistol and, for a short time, also manufactured a kit that could be used to convert the Contender into a rifle with either a 21-inch or a lO-inch barrel. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms advised respondent that when the kit was possessed or distributed with the Contender, the unit constituted a "firearm" under the National Firearms Act (NFA or Act), 26 U. S. C. § 5845(a)(3), which defines that term to include a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches long, known as a short-barreled rifle, but not a pistol or a rifle having a barrel 16 inches or more in length. Respondent paid the $200 tax levied by § 5821 upon anyone "making" a "firearm" and filed a claim for a refund. When its refund claim proved fruitless, respondent brought this suit under the Tucker Act. The Claims Court entered summary judgment for the Government, but the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that a short-barreled rifle "actually must be assembled" in order to be "made" within the NF A's meaning.
Held: The judgment is affirmed. 924 F.2d 1041, affirmed.
The case of AR15 pistols, rifles, and short barrelled rifles is directly comparable. Remove the upper receiver, containing the barrel, from the serially numbered lower receiver, of an AR15 pistol. Replace the short barreled upper receiver with an upper receiver with a barrel longer than 16 inches. Attack a stock to the lower receiver. A legal rifle has been assembled. No NFA laws or rules have been broken.
If, instead of a stock, you have in your possession one of the banned pistol braces, under the new rule by the ATF, you may be violating the law with the constructive possession of a short barreled rifle. The new rule is being challenged in the courts.
The absurdity of the short barreled rifle ban has been allowed to continue for 89 years. The initial bill, produced by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration in 1934, did not include short barreled rifles. They were added because of the confused comments of a Minnesota Democrat on the Ways and Means committee. Pistols with shoulder stocks were not formally ruled as "short barreled rifles" until 1961. There never was a media push to ban short barreled rifles, which were in common use at the time they were banned.
Under the Supreme Court Bruen decision, bans on short barreled rifles did not exist before 1921. They have no historical legal or cultural precedent. They ban an entire class of firearms. The government cannot show they were an acceptable restriction on the right to keep and bear arms before 1900.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
"The car was stopped, windows were down and playing loud music," Slichter told CBS13.
Slichter said the veteran asked the driver to stop blasting his music. Then, multiple neighbors say the driver ran the veteran over with his car, and the veteran pulled out a gun and shot the driver. Sacramento police have not confirmed this is how it happened.
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A man is dead after a homeowner shot and killed them Tuesday night, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Police said this happened in the 10000 block of West Tropical Parkway near Hualapai Way around 9:37 p.m.
Incident 47 August 17, 1993 Coburg Island, Canada Polar bear Unknown Handgun
On August 17, 1993, Stephen Smith had crawled into his sleeping bag a little before midnight, exhausted from a long day of research hanging in a harness, high above ground, banding sea birds. Only 15 minutes later, a polar bear emerged from the sea and was attempting to enter the tent. From Up Here magazine Jan/Feb, 2013:
Things were shaking, rumbling, vibrating – a space encapsulated, tumbling uncontrollably, like a car rolling off a highway. A roar beyond the edges closing in; unrelenting confusion; craziness. And then the instant where my stifled scream broke free and the dream was gone. Sitting bolt upright in my sleeping bag, gun in my hand, my world was defined by a domed envelope of yellow nylon.
“BEAR!” I bellowed, grabbing the zipper on the doorway. The stillness of that moment was broken by the ripping of the zipper teeth. The tent door fell away, revealing a very black and moist nose, straddled by two wide and startled eyes. In the space of three pulls on the trigger, two things became certain: A bear had died in the High Arctic, and I was fully awake, bent forward in my sleeping bag.
The article in Up Here Magazine indicates the incident happened in 1994. Smith's memory in 2013 was off a bit. The entry in the report received as part of a Freedom of Information Act request states:
The official report, scan attached, states the date as 17 August 1993.
The location was Coburg Island, near Ellemerre Island, off the southeast coast, in Baffin Bay.
From the article:
The day had been busy and exhausting, most of it spent dangling in a harness high above the sea, banding seabirds and their chicks. Stumbling out of the tent in my underwear, smoking gun in hand, everything was a blur. I heard my tent-mate shout, “Steve, you didn’t even fire a warning shot!”
And as I stood over the glistening and motionless remains of the magnificent animal, I realized that it was wet and fresh from the sea. Looking at my watch I also realized that it was midnight and that I’d only gone to bed 15 minutes earlier. It was true. I hadn’t fired a warning shot. Nor had it occurred to me.
Eleven years later, Smith's companions saved him from another hungry polar bear, by shooting and killing the bear. Smith says he will be forever grateful to them for saving his life.
Stephen Smith goes on to talk about his conversion to the theory all you need to defend yourself from polar bears is a stout stick, and the right attitude.
Polar bears may often be intimidated by a stout stick, if you are awake, see them coming from some distance, have the correct mental attitude, and do not find yourself facing a desperately hungry bear.
People have been killed by polar bears after the bear dragged them from a tent, or caught them unaware at a work site.
According to Svalbard records, no one who has been armed with a suitable firearm in Svalbard, has been killed by a polar bear, at least since 1976.
All polar bears die. Most polar bears are hungry most of the time. Killing the few polar bears who encounter people and refuse to be scared off, does not harm the polar bear population. Many young and old polar bears die of starvation every year. Removing a few polar bears from polar bear habitat opens up available slots in the polar bear ecosystem, allowing other bears to survive.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
According to Cleveland Police, officers responded to 13623 Rugby Road for a report of a male shot. Upon arrival, officers found the door to the house kicked in and the 37-year-old gunshot victim upstairs with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Based on a preliminary investigation, authorities believe that the 36-year-old shooting suspect was at the residence with a 29-year-old female who lives there and is known to both the suspect and the victim. Police say that the victim kicked in the front door and was shot by the suspect following an altercation. The suspect proceeded to flee the scene.
On June 16, near Groom Creek, in Arizona, 66-year-old Steven Jackson was sitting on his camp chair, having coffee at an outdoor table, when he was unprovokedly attacked by a 300 lb male black bear. The attack appears to have been predatory in nature. Groom Creek is a few miles South of Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, at about 5000 - 6000 feet above sea level. The temperature on the morning of the 16th was about 70 degrees Farenheit. From Yavapai County Sheriff's Office:
At approximately 7:50 this morning, the YCSO dispatch center received multiple 911 calls about a man who was being mauled by a bear in the Groom Creek Area. When YCSO deputies and Prescott PD arrived at the scene, which was in a heavily wooded remote area, they found Steven Jackson, 66 years old of Tucson dead of an apparent bear attack, and the bear dead nearby. Deputies called officials from Arizona Game and Fish to respond to the scene as well.From multiple witness accounts and preliminary investigation of the scene, Mr. Jackson had been sitting having coffee at a table on his property where he was building a home. It appears that a male black bear attacked Mr. Jackson, taking him unaware, and dragged him approximately 75 feet down an embankment.Neighbors who heard the victim screaming tried to intervene through shouts and car horns, but the bear did not let go of Mr. Jackson until one neighbor was able to retrieve his rifle and shoot the bear to get him to disengage. Unfortunately, by that time Mr. Jackson has succumbed to his horrible injuries.According to Arizona Game and Fish and confirmed by YCSO this attack, which appeared to be predatory in nature, is highly uncommon and unusual, with only one other fatal attack known since the mid 1980s. At first glance there did not appear to be anything on the site that would have precipitated a attack by the bear, such as food, a cooking site or access to water.
On June 28, Hollingsworth was walking her dog near her family’s vacation home in Pinetop when a bear rummaging for trash attacked her. She suffered severe lacerations of her scalp and arms and contracted an infection from bacteria carried in the bear’s claws. Wildlife officials later located the bear and killed it.
She underwent 11 surgeries before dying from a brain hemorrhage on Monday at a Scottsdale hospital.
The American Hunter reports 15 bear attacks have happened in Arizona since 1990. From the americanhunter.com:
There have been 15 bear attacks on people in the state since 1990. This is the second fatal bear attack in Arizona since then, which is as far back as the department’s database tracks. The first fatality occurred in 2011 in Pinetop.
A near fatal bear attack was stopped by Brett Kramer on Mount Lemmon, near Tucson, in 1996. Brett shot the bear with his .44 magnum Ruger Super Blackhawk to save camper Anna Knochel.
Other bear attacks in Arizona were stopped with handguns in 2002, 2012, and 2016, as shown in records from our pistol defense data base.
Many more fatal attacks by black bears would occur in Arizona if residents and visitors were no armed with firearms.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
(Washington, DC) – Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department's Third District announce an arrest has been made and additional suspects are sought in reference to an Armed Carjacking (Gun) offense that occurred on Sunday, June 18, 2023, in the 2500 block of Sherman Avenue, Northwest.
At approximately 4:17 am, the suspects attempted to carjack the victim at the listed location. During the attempt, there was an exchange of gunfire between the victim and at least one of the suspects. As a result, the victim and a suspect both sustained non-life threatening gunshot wounds. Both were located at local hospitals seeking treatment.
On Sunday, June 18, 2023, 20-year-old Tayshawn Brice-Hayes, of Northwest, DC, was arrested and charged with Armed Carjacking (Gun) and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon (Gun).
This case remains under investigation. Anyone who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at (202) 727-9099 or text your tip to the Department's TEXT TIP LINE at 50411. The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $10,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for a violent crime committed in the District of Columbia.
Handguns have been shown to be effective tools when used to defend against bears. Seven years ago the question of whether handguns were effective when used to defend against bears was in dispute. In October of 2016, an Internet correspondent claimed pistols were ineffective as a bear defense. He claimed there were "legions" of incidents where they failed. He failed to provide a singe documented case where a handgun, when fired in defense against a bear, failed to stop the attack.
I and colleagues started to look for instances where pistols were fired in defense against a bear or bears. We particularly looked for incidents where the use of the pistol failed to stop the attack. Incidents where bear stopped attacking, was killed, or just ran off were considered successful defenses.
We discovered handgun failures in defense against bears are rare. Successful uses of handguns to defend against bears are about 50 times as common. Handguns have been shown to be an effective tool to use against bears 98% of the time.
As the number of documented incidents where pistols were fired as a defense against bears accumulated, publishing the entire list became burdensome. To update the list, we include links to the last full list of 104 incidents, published on June 21, 2021, and the first update increasing the number to 123 incidents published on April 11, 2022. Those numbers are the incidents where only a handgun was fired. Combinations where a handgun and other deadly instruments were used are not counted for handgun statistics, but are documented.
Since April of 2022, we have documented 25 more incidents where handguns were fired as a defense against bears. 21 incidents involved only handguns. One of those incidents was judged to be indeterminate (August 29, 1978, Schallenberger). 4 cases were combination defenses. All incidents where a handguns was fired to defend against a bear are included. This prevents selection bias of the data.
This update brings the total number of incidents to 170. In 146 incidents, only handguns were fired. Three of those are judged to be failures. Another three are judged to be indeterminate, including a case where the bear was driven off, but it was unclear if handgun fire or bear spray was the determining factor. 24 cases occurred where a handgun was fired in combination with another deadly instrument. Those cases are not included in the statistics for handgun defenses. Three failures and 140 successes out of 143 cases is a 98% success rate.
Here are the 25 incidents in chronological order:
1962 Summer .22 LR Grizzly Bear Montana
The incident with the grizzly bear happened in the 1962 spring trapping season. Another worker was helping Chuck then. I met the guy once but have forgotten his name. A 500-pound male grizzly bear was caught in the steel jawed trap and took it and the tangled up drag about two miles where the bear hid in an aspen patch. Chuck and his helper tracked the grizzly on foot. The helper was armed with a 12 gauge shotgun and all Chuck had was his nine shot Harrington and Richardson Model 939, double action, .22 revolver in a holster on his belt.The grizzly charged and Chuck stood still waiting for his helper to shoot. He looked around and the helper was running off with the shotgun. Chuck turned to run and tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. The 500-pound male grizzly ran up to Chuck and stood up on his hind legs over him with the trap on a front paw. Chuck pulled out his .22 revolver and fired all nine shots in it. Some missed, some glanced off the grizzly’s skull and one went into an eye socket, killing the bear
Summer 1976 Grizzly, Montana, .357 magnum Allen Schallenberger
In Allen's own words starting in the summer of 1976:
In the summer of 1976, I was working alone on the grizzly bear research and was on a trip in the Scapegoat Wilderness south of the Benchmark Road end on USFS land. I was riding my saddle horse and leading two pack horses with my equipment and camping supplies. I rode into a small grassy opening suitable for horse feed north of Half Moon Peak at about dusk. I unloaded the two pack horses and turned them loose to graze with hobbles and was starting to unsaddle my riding horse. A very heavy, tall, dark colored grizzly bear appeared walking on the nearby USFS trail about 30 yards away. He made no bad threats and kept walking. I had been out about two weeks and my flashlight batteries were dead. Quickly I threw some stove fuel on dry sticks and got a large fire going for light. I put a double halter rope on my horse so he could not break loose from the tree. I set up my small tent and then I stood outside watching my horses and listening to the bear circle the small clearing breaking sticks. The horses with hobbles were not eating and were pivoting sensing the travel of the bear circling around us. After about two hours, I knew I had to do something to scare away the very large and aggressive bear. I fired six fast shots with my Colt Python and reloaded quickly. The bear left and I tied up all the horses, ate some supper and went to bed in the tent. The horses were allowed to graze the next morning before we headed back to our pickup and trailer at Benchmark Road. The bear’s tracks were in the trail dust for several miles. The front paw print was 8 inches wide which indicates a very big grizzly in Montana. That was the last trip I ever made in grizzly research without a 760 Remington pump 30:06 rifle with ghost ring peep sight and 220 grain loads or a short, barreled Remington 12 gauge 870 with sights and a combination of double 00 buck and slugs along with my revolver and hard cast lead bullets.
Summer 1977, Grizzly bears, Montana, .357 mag as told by Allen Schallenberger
In spring 1977, I was flying with a small plane pilot out of the Choteau airport to check on the location of radio collared grizzly bears.
My spring helper Roy Jacobs and I had a few snares set in aspen patches on Ear Mountain, a prominent peak on the mountain front adjacent to the foothills and prairie about 25 miles west of Choteau. I flew over the snare sets with the pilot to check for bears and I spotted two adult grizzlies in snares and another adult hanging out with a snared bear. We immediately stopped our radio monitoring flight and went back to the Choteau airport. Roy and I caught our saddle horses and a pack animal for our trapping and radio gear and loaded up my trailer at Choteau. Roy who was a local suggested we get Wayne and Chip Gollehon who ranched on Ear Mountain to help us handle the bears for safety. I called Wayne and we met them on horses on the mountain. We had no trouble with the first large male and I quickly drugged him with a dart gun, and we measured him and put a radio collar on him. The other pair was about a mile away. We all tied up our horses to aspen trees and I gave my shotgun to Wayne Gollehon and told him his job was watch for the courting sow grizzly which had been hanging out with the adult male in the snare. After I drugged the bear and we were getting ready to put the radio collar on him, Wayne yelled, “ Look out here she comes”! She was charging us at a trot at about 40 yards. I jerked my Colt Python .357 out and fired two shots into the air and she swerved away and did not return. Roy had laid his shotgun on the ground and had to run toward the female to get it. We finished measuring the male and put the radio collar on him. We thanked the Gollehon’s for helping and they rode their horses home. Roy and I went to the Cow Track Restaurant and had late dinner and a couple of drinks to settle our nerves. Roy grew up in Choteau and had camped and hunted on Ear Mountain many times without realizing how many grizzlies were present.
August 29 1978 Choteau Montana, Grizzly bear .357, indeterminate, as told by Allan Schallenberger
When we had climbed to about 8,200 feet which was above timberline, we spotted a large adult grizzly at about 300 yards coming down a game trail on the mountain toward us. Keith checked the radio, and it was our courting male we caught on Ear Mountain in 1977. I said I guess I better let him know we are in the area, and I yelled,” Hey bear” loudly. He let out a string of bear cuss words and started running toward us as fast as he could run. I quickly fired two .357 magnum shots in the air which appeared to have no effect on him. I quickly stuffed two more shells in the revolver and gave it to Keith. I chambered a round in my shotgun and stuffed another slug round in the magazine. There was a five-foot-high boulder about 20 feet behind us and we got behind that. I told Keith when the grizzly appeared on top of the ridge, we were going to kill him. We waited with our hair standing up and the bear did not appear. A check with the radio receiver showed he had passed down the other side of the ridge headed for the dense forest on the river.
1988 September 12 FOIA polar bears incident 142 .44 magnum Krosspynten
Oscar and a friend were staying at the cabin at Krosspynten. At 6 AM, a bear entered the cabin hallway and woke them up. The bear had been rummaging in there for a few seconds before they knocked on the wall to drive it away. The bear went outside. A few seconds later, it came around to the front of the cabin and smashed the window of the room where they were. The bear backed up, then accelerated and threw itself at the window. It destroyed the window bar and made the wall of the cabin bulge dangerously inwards. At that moment, Oscar thought the wall would collapse. The bear was halfway inside the cabin; its front paws, head, and a part of the upper body were through the window.
Oscar thought the wall would collapse if he didn’t do anything. He had no choice but to shoot the bear. He had his revolver by the bed and fired one shot into the throat of the bear. The bear tumbled out of the window. Oscar got up and fired one more shot with the revolver. The bear retreated. Oscar accessed his rifle. The bear managed to get about 100m from the cabin before Oscar was able to kill it with the rifle. The revolver was a .44 caliber magnum.
1990 August 28 Incident 148 combination pistol and rifle in 7.62mm, Russians, Norway, Barents Sea
Around 1PM Alek and Boris woke up from banging on the door. Alek got up and went to the door and discovered there was a polar bear outside. He had a signal flare in his hand. When he was about to open the door, he heard the bear snorting and thought that the bear’s head was at the same height as his. He didn’t dare to open the door. He didn’t set off the signal flare. When the bear continued to hit the door, the two others got up. Alek accessed a 7.62 mm handgun, and Boris and Igor each took a 7.62 mm rifle.
They had sausages, butter, and other groceries in the hallway. The bear was probably smelling this and trying to reach the food. The people thought if the bear broke through the door and into the cabin, the situation would become life-threatening. There would be very little time to aim and fire. The cabin was already crowded.
Considering the situation, Alek fired one shot through the door with the pistol. He fired upwards so the shot would go through the door at approximately head height and angled upward. The bear continued to hit the door, and Alek now fired a shot with the rifle. He was scared and shaken. He was convinced the bear was standing on two legs and that its head would be at the height of the middle of the door. He thus fired through the door at that height to hit the bear in the head/ neck region. He was scared for his life, and so were the others, this is why he tried to kill the bear.
Boris then opened the window on the other side of the cabin, stood in the window and looked over the roof. He then saw the bear was lying on the ground about 10m from the cabin. The bears eyes were open, and the bear was not dead. He could not see if the bear was injured. Alek then opened the door and fired one shot in the ground besides the bear. It then got up and started walking away. He could see that it was injured, there was blood on the left shoulder. The bear walked towards “Myklagard” and disappeared behind the hill. Alek, Boris and Igor went up on the hill and could then see the bear lying on the ground about 100m from “Myklagard”.
1993 February 27 Barents Sea, Norway Incident 162 FOIA Polar Bears Rubber bullet from special handgun or .357 Mag.
The bear was observed around 12-13 hours by Joan and Jill at the first cabin on Vestpynten after the camping place. The next cabin is Ralph. They saw the bear on the shore, walking towards Ralph’s cabin. The dogs (8) Ralph had with him had warned him about the bear and he started taking them inside. To the witnesses on the other cabin it looked like the bear was smelling the dogs and getting interested. Ralph said he had 3 dogs left outside when the bear arrived at the cabin. The witnesses only saw 1. Ralph tells that the bear had a dark spot on the belly, maybe from oil spill and that it was very aggressive. He went to get a special weapon, “rubber-bullet gun”. At about 1m distance he fired one shot at the bear. He think it hit the bear in the side. Joan couldn’t see the weapon properly, but she thought it was a pistol because he was holding it with one hand. She could not see it if the bear reacted after the first shot, but she said that he fired one more shot and that the bear then jumped and ran away towards the sea. Ralph himself claims he only fired one shot. Jill also thought she saw Ralph fire 2 shots but she wasn’t certain. She was certain that he didn’t use a rifle/ shotgun sized weapon, but a smaller type of weapon.
The rubber-bullet-gun was never shown to the police, and at the next interview, Ralph had destroyed it.
The rubber-bullet-gun was purchased in Canada 20 years before. The same goes for the ammunition. The day of the incident was the first time Ralph used the gun, and it was the last of the ammo. 20 year old rubber bullets can get hard as rock and since it was fired at very close range it might have made serious injuries to the bear. Ralph also had a .357 revolver. Ralph claimed it was inside the cabin when he shot at the bear.
1993 July 20 Paulabren, Norway, incident 157 FOIA Polar Bear
Everything happened very fast, in about 2 seconds. Paul had a revolver, a Smith & Wesson, lying on his left side. The same moment he saw the bear he bent over and grabbed the gun. Before he had the gun ready to fire, the bear was at him and he pulled his legs back. The sleeping pad he was sitting on had claw marks on it.
Paul kicked out with his legs and fired the gun. He didn’t see if he hit, but he was sure he must have, at that range, about 1 m. He fired one more shot immediately. The bear then turned around and ran
away. John could not see if the bear was bleeding from a gunshot wound. Ian also came to the tent opening and fired one shot at the bear, but thinks he didn’t hit the bear.The bear ran back the same way it had come. First it stopped at about 400 m away. They saw it was bleeding from a wound in the chest. They didn’t have any rifle with them (it was left in town for another expedition that was going to come up on the 26th of July.) They tried to get closer to the bear to finish it. When they closed the distance to about 80 m it ran away.
2003 February 3, Austfjordneset Norway, Revolver probably .44 magnum, FOIA incident 188
Arthur wanted to prevent the bear from getting inside the building. When he came in to the workshop he could hear the bear rummaging. He wasn’t sure if it was already inside or not. He opened the door to the woodshed, with the revolver cocked and ready. When he came in to the shed he found himself face to face with the bear. The bear had his head trough the window. It seemed aggressive and tried to get in. Arthur felt the situation was very threatening. Acting on instinct, he shot the bear in the head through the window.
The bear pulled back without Arthur being able to tell if it was hit or not. He went outside and found the bear 10-15m away with a lot of blood on its head. He understood he needed to kill the bear and fired 4 more shots towards the forepart of the bear. His wife came out. He told her to get the shotgun. When he got it he checked that the ammunition was slugs and fire 2 shots towards the heart of the bear, that fell over and died.
2005 March 5 incident 198 Barents Sea Norway .500 S&W
On March 5, 2005, two people were attacked by a polar bear in the remote area of Kapp Lee, Edgeøya, in the Svalbard archipelago.
The .500 Smith & Wesson revolver had been on the market for just over two years when this occurred. The individual responsible for security had one of those big revolvers on his person.
This story was uncovered as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. The names of the individuals involved were redacted. The original account is a translation with some grammatical and spelling errors.
What follows is the account, edited for readability. The names Paul and Sally have been substituted for the redacted names. This is what happened.
Paul, Sally and two more people were airlifted from Longyearbyen to Kapp Lee, Edgeøya, and landed at 2:21 PM. The helicopter flew the two other people a bit further away to install a digital camera to takepictures of Storfjorden.
(snip)
In far less time than it takes to tell it, Paul yelled, “Dammit, I’m shooting,” and fired one shot at the bear, now only 1.4 meters (fivefeet) away.
He tried to aim at the heart/lung areas, but was not sure where he hit, other than that it was to the right side of the neck, from thefront, toward the back of the bear.
The bear turned immediately and ran away. The bear collapsed 48 meters from where Paul stood.
2005 October 1 Venus Creek Bear Wyoming combination 7mm mag and 41 and .357 mags FOIA page 517
In the Washakie Wilderness of Wyoming three hunters with two dogs stopped to eat lunch One dog barked and they were charged by sow grizzly and two large cubs. Shot the grizzly with 7mm magnum at about 25 feet, and with .41 mag, maybe once with .357 mag. finished with .41 mag after it went down.
2006 July 6, Yukon Flats National Wildlife refuge, united States, incident 256 FOIA .44 magnum, Black Bear
Dinner had been cooked by the river an hour or so before. After dinner PII and PII were talking a German couple who camped with them. In the course of the conversation PII heard beavers downriver slapping their tails in alarm. A mature black bear was moving directly towards them. PII and PII walked towards the bear. At 30 yards the bear open and closed its mouth. A bean bag round was fired. It bounced in front of the animal and bounced up to graze its tail. At that point the bear headed towards the upland. As the bear moved, trapper PII fired three rounds from his .44 over its head. PII then pursued the animal, which circled the camp and jumped into Beaver Creek and swam across the river and disappeared.
2006 July 31 Storøya Norway, Combination Incident 199 FOIA Polar Bear (PBHIMS)
PII fired one shot in the air with the revolver, and the bear stopped one second and turned a bit away. From previous situations PII thought that the bear was about to leave, and shot one more shot in the group to make it go away. At the second shot the bear jumped around and started walking towards PII again. Tove was now back with PII who continued firing warning shots. He had the possibility to concentrate on every shot and fire in the gravel in front of the bear, hoping that it would stop and turn around. The bear increased the speed in a straight line towards PII and PII. He told PII to fire warning shots too. When he had fired 6 warning shots he took the rifle he had over the shoulder and the bear was now so close that he could see no other option than firing at it. He said "we have to take this one" and fired one shot that hit the front of the bear. After the first shot the bear had turned and was showing its side and PII fired one more shot to the heart/lung area. PII also fire one shot towards the bear. The bear went down but was still moving so Aksnes went closer a fired one more shot to the hear/lung area. After this he called up M/Spolarstar and asked them to call the Governor and give the GPS position.
2014 August 16, Arey Island .44 magnum Polar Bear FOIA incident 549
One of the Fish and Wildlife personnel was sleeping in a tent. They had a .44 magnum. A fat and healthy boar polar bear arrived on the scene and attempted to enter the tent. The sleeper woke up, detected the polar bear, and shot and killed the polar bear with the .44 magnum. The shooter was not injured, except perhaps, for some lost hearing ability.
According to Mike Porras with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the bear came into the family’s campground while they were present and wentafter some food that was out.
An armed adult attempted to scare the bear by firing two shots but the bear didn’t show any fear and wouldn’t leave. The camper then shot and killed the bear and immediately reported the shooting to wildlife officers.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has determined the shooting was justified and no charges or citations will be brought against the camper.
October 12, 2020 Black Bear, .40 Caliber Katchmak State Park Alaska
The attack occurred as the Bates family, Weatherly Bates, her husband, their 12-year-old son, Rockwell, their 10-year-old daughter Vera, and two family dogs, on leashes, were hiking on the Glacier Moraine Trail inKachemak Bay State park.
Weatherly Bates had a .40 caliber S&W in her backpack. The bear came at them at about 3 p.m., even though they yelled at it and bunched together.
Weatherly Bates explains what happened:
“It did attack. It was a predatory bear That year we had a lot of problems. The bears were starving. There was, like, no berries. We were hiking and we noticed there was a bear spray cap on the ground. A couple of minutes later a bear came up behind us. I tried to yell and scare it away, but it kept coming. I did have a gun in my backpack, so I started backing up to my husband.”
Weatherly’s husband accessed the pistol from her backpack. Weatherly continues:
“I could tell this bear wasn’t stopping. Our dog got in between the bear and our son. She didn’t even bark at it. It tackled her and started biting her head. We let our other dog go, he was on a leash. He started biting the bear. We think that is what saved our female German Shepard. My husband had to grab the bear and get it so he could dispatch it without shooting our dog. He shot it point blank in the spine. It took two shots before it let go. Then he shot it about five more times.”
October 2, 2021,combination 10mm and .300 Win Mag Wyoming North Fork of Shoshone River, 2 October, 2021 Grizzly, unprovoked attack
“She came over the top from the east side of the ridge about 15 to 20 yards away from us. We were looking at the elk, and she came from behind us. And when she got about three or four yards away from us, that’s when she started making some noise. It’s kind of crazy. It actually sounded like a pig, kind of a squeal, not as high (pitched), but that’s what it reminded me of, a pig.”
By then it was too late.
“That’s when she tackled me. I turned around, and she hit me from the side. I never even got all the way turned around,” Dickson said. The experienced hunter always carries a 10mm handgun in a holster across his chest, but before he could reach it, the bear knocked him down.
“When I fell down, my left arm came up, and that’s when she got a hold of my hand,” Dickson said. “I was on my right side with my left side up. The guy that was with me, when that bear was on top, that’s when he shot that bear. He was probably only 20 yards behind me.”
Fortunately, his friend’s aim was true, and he hit the grizzly with a .300 Winchester Magnum just behind the shoulder. The wounded bear then turned on John, which gave Dickson the time to get up, get his pistol out and shoot the bear with the 10mm. The bear dropped, and a couple more shots from the rifle made sure the bear was dead.
It was all over in less than two minutes.
13 August, 2022, Colorado Steamboat Springs, Black Bear, .40 Caliber.
A bear entered a home in Steamboat at 2 a.m. Saturday.
Kelly Mauldin heard her dogs barking and got up to investigate and discovered the 300-400 male bear in her house. She screamed for her husband, Ken, who got up and shot and killed the bear.“When I went to my bedroom door, I saw the bear about 10 feet away and shot it instantly with a 40-caliber, semi-automatic handgun. Then the bear charged me. I continued shooting at it as fast as I could. The bullet hole in the floor suggested the bear got about five to sixfeet from me when he backed up, changed directions, and crashed through the bannister railing onto the stairs, where he collapsed at the bottom of the stairs.”
August 30, 2022 two incidents Black Bear, MN .22 Mag Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– On
Tuesday, August 30, at about 6:50 p.m., James Little settled into campsite 674 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). His youngest child was a few feet away. His youngest cried out, and James grabbed the child and took a couple of steps, uncertain of what had happened.Then his oldest yelled, “Bear!” and James turned around. The bear was about six feet from him. It had been within 3-4 feet of his back whenthe child was startled. This was the start of the remarkable incident. In James’ words:
Just finished a trip to Horseshoe that should have been three nights, but turn to one. (Campsite 674) Had a bear walk right into camp and within four feet of my youngest! Nothing would discourage him till I fired a couple of rounds. We packed up and bolted to an open site (campsite 677) a half mile away on the other side of the lake. Weren’t there five minutes and was pulling up the food bag and my wifescreamed. There was another bear fifteen feet away heading to our canoe with our kids in it. I had to fire another round before he would be deterred. Left that site and unexpected BWCA.com member Ausable and his crew took my family and me in for the night. (Campsite 672) Early the next morning, we broke came and headed out. My family had had too much. Across from the portage from Caribou to Lizz, (campsite 645) the campers there had their breakfast intruded upon by a bear who would not be deterred till he had taken their food bag.
2022 September 14 in Montana two incidents one confirmed pistol. (Emigrant is just north of Yellowstone Park)
On Sept. 14, a group of hunters reported they were charged by a grizzly bear near Rock Creek in the Tom Miner Basin. One of the hunters shot at the bear with a pistol, and the bear ran away. The U.S. Forest Service issued a temporary road closure while FWP wardens and bear specialists
investigated the incident. After searching from the ground and from a helicopter, no sign of an injured bear or bear tracks were found. The area was reopened with an advisory of high bear activity.
2022 12 October, .44 Magum Sitka AK Brown bear
Wildlife Troopers in Alaska have officially ended their investigation into the shooting of a brown bear. The bear was killed by a 16-year-old in a Sitka neighborhood early on Wednesday morning.
Shortly after midnight on Oct. 12, Sitka police received a call from a young man who said he shot a bear outside his home on the 1400 block of Edgecumbe Drive.
Per reports from police dispatch, the teen was at home with an 18-year-old. When the 16-year-old heard a noise, he took a .44-caliber handgun outside to see what was happening. When he went outside, he got startled by the bear and fired the gun.
After firing a round, the injured creature ran away. Later, Sitka police officers found and recovered the carcass across the street. They stored it for the night in a department pickup truck.
Following the incident, the Sitka police later issued a citation to the teen for negligent feeding of game. Then, the case was turned over to wildlife troopers, who investigated it as a potential defense of life and property – or DLP – shooting. DLP policy allows a resident to kill a bear under some circumstances legally.
2022 21 October 10mm, Grizzly bear Wyoming
On October 21, 2022, Wyoming dentist, Dr. Lee Francis, 65 years old, was hunting elk with his 40-year-old son, in the area near Rock Creek, in the Sawtooth Mountains, east of Bondurant, Wyoming.
In this video from KSAL-TV, he gives an interview and explains what happened. Dr. Francis is an avid hunter and outdoorsman. He successfully collected a large grizzly bear with a bow and arrow in 2013. Several attempts to contact Dr. Francis have been unsuccessful.
Dr. Francis had separated from his son when he unintentionally stepped in front of the entrance to a bear den. He saw the fresh dirt, had drawn his Glock 10mm, chambered a round, and was backing away when the bear charged at him out of the den from 10 feet away.
The best interview about the encounter appears to have been in an article at cowboystatedaily.com. The article says Dr. Francis used 130-grain hardcast bullets in his 10mm Glock.
“He came right at me, and he came on full blast,” the elder Francis said.
Counting the cartridge already in the chamber, he had 14 rounds loaded with 130 grain hard cast bullets in his Glock.
“I just remember shooting three or for times, right before he hit me,” he said. “Then I went down on my back.”…
Hard cast bullets will punch through a bruin’s body, instead of rapidly expanding and expending their energy in massive, shallow wounds the way that hollow point bullets do, he said.
“Hollow points are meant for stopping people, not bears,” he said, adding that it was also fortunate for him that his weapon was loaded with hard cast bullets.
“A hit from a hollow point would have probably just exploded my whole foot,” he said.
He also said he favors the high-capacity, semi-automatic Glock over magnum revolvers.
June 5, 2023 Madison Ridge Southeast of Ennis
ENNIS, Mont. — Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say a hunter killed a grizzly bear in self-defense last week southeast of Ennis. The hunter reported he was charged by the grizzly while hunting black bears on private land in the backcountry. He shot and killed the grizzly with a pistol and was not injured.
June 10, Sterling Alaska Grizzly bear .44 (probably magnum) Daily Dispatch of Alaskan Troopers
On June 10, 2023, at approximately 20:24, while rabbit hunting north of the Sterling Highway at mile 73.5 Nicholas Abraham Age 34 of Sterling AK was attacked by a sow brown bear with cubs. Abraham was able to shoot and kill the sow with a 44 handgun. Abraham had non-life-threatening injuries.
Of the 25 additional incidents documented, where handguns were fired in defense against bears, four were combinations with other firearms. One handgun only incident was judged to be indeterminante, as no reaction from the bear was observed, but the bear left in a different direction. The other 20 defensive uses of handguns alone against bears were successful.
The Freedom of Information Act request for the Polar Bear data base increased the documented number of polar bear incidents. We have 11 incidents where handguns were fired in defense against polar bears. There are 57 incidents involving black bears and 102 incidents involving brown/grizzly bears. The three failures include one each of black, brown/grizzly and polar bears.
There are incidents which are being investigated and are likely to be included in the next update.
©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Chief A.Z. Williams said, based on the preliminary investigation, the suspect entered the backyard of the home where children were playing outside. The suspect allegedly tried to accost an 11 year-old girl. Other children ran inside the home and alerted the mother and father.
Police said the suspect attempted to follow the children into the residence by pulling on the back door handle and shaking it violently.
At the NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, 1shotsystems.com was offering pre-orders to the public, for the new, improved version of their highly successful, non-attached, pistol stabilization system. The product has been in use, particularly in the US military and with law enforcement agencies, for a decade. The improved design is now being offered to the general public. The early versions were built for the Special Forces community, particularly Navy Seals. The product has been continuously improved, and is now in use at over a hundred agencies, including the Secret Service and U.S. Border Patrol.
The concept of a solid rest to stabilize a pistol, which is not attached to the pistol, and thus, not a firearms part, has been in the gun culture for a very long time. Using a walking stick to stabilize a pistol has been fairly common, even if the stability came from the ground and not the shooter's shoulder. The idea of a stick, held by the shooters hand against the pistol grip, has been considered, on and off, for as long as pistols have existed. An intermediate form is the hip stick. These systems while helpful, do not approach the advantages which accrue while using the the one-shot design.
A major advantage of the latest one-shot design is its simplicity. It is a simple, solid and tough piece of special reinforced composite material. No adjustment is necessary. When you grip the pistol and the one-shot, your grip holds them together in a unique way which prevents side to side wobble or up and down angular rotation between the pistol and the one-shot. The one-shot design only weighs seven ounces. It is eleven inches long. There is no attachment to the pistol. When the user stops gripping the pistol, the one-shot separates automatically. Therefore, it is easy to holster the pistol. Just holster it as you normally would, and the one-shot moves from it. If you have the one-shot in your hand, placing it on the pistol grip as you draw the pistol is said to be almost as quick as a normal draw. With the one-shot, you are drawing the equivalent of a pistol caliber carbine, with all the advantages in accuracy and control.
The simple system has made this correspondent re-think the entire "pistol brace" controversy. The one-shot side steps the entire issue. It is not a firearm part. It never attaches to the firearm. It is simply a sophisticated type of rest, not much different in function than a stick. It is not regulated as a firearm part because it is not a firearm part. This correspondent was told there is no issue in carrying it aboard commercial aircraft in carry-on luggage.
One of the difficulties of using pistols at longer ranges has been the short sight radius. A modern solution is the micro optical sight. Someone with excellent eyes and good support can hit beer cans at 70 yards with a snub nosed revolver. This correspondent could do it while I was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team in the 1970's. It takes good eyes and a solid support. Sight alignment is critical. Modern micro optical sights eliminate most sighting errors. The one-shot system excels at support to minimize wander and wobble in nearly all situations. The combination produces a system which is the equivalent of a pistol caliber carbine, with significant advantages and slight disadvantages. This means, with most pistol calibers, first shot hits on man-sized targets out to 150 yards are not difficult. First shot hits on small game to 50 yards are not difficult. If you can hit what you are aiming at with an ordinary .22 rifle, you will almost certainly be able to hit it with a pistol equipped with an optical sight and a one-shot. This is limited by the inherent accuracy of the pistol used. Most modern pistols are surprisingly accurate.
A major advantage is the ability to holster the pistol so as to be free of encumbrances. Another is the extremely compact package which can be brought into play in a couple of seconds, without adjustment or set screws.
The minor disadvantage is the one-shot and pistol together are not an effective blunt instrument. They can be used separately. Being a blunt instrument was never a great selling point for shoulder stocked pistols.
While the one-shot appears to be simple, it represents years of continual improvement and sophisticated features. The contact between the pistol, the one-shot, and the human hand has been refined so that it works extremely well with a large number of semi-automatic pistols. The part of the one-shot which accepts the slide as it recoils both aids in stability and protects the users hand, face and eye. The variety of slots reduces weight and allow for multiple sling methods of carrying the one-shot for rapid employment. The asymmetrical shape of the contact area increases the stability of the system. The sophisticated composite material is very strong. There are a number of patents on the design.
Unfortunately, advance samples of the one-shot system were not available at the NRA Annual Meeting. The prototypes examined by this correspondent were simple, light, compact, and impressive in their ability to stabilize a pistol into the equivalent of a pistol caliber carbine. This correspondent hopes to test one of the early production models with actual range and field time. The one-shot product can be pre-ordered for $99 at usa1shot.com. The official release date is July 4, 2023.
One-shot is said to have earned its name from people who used earlier versions in the field, and marveled at the increase in practical accuracy from a pistol. It is virtually unregulated by any firearms law. Long experience by over a hundred agencies has shown it to be useful and effective.
GONZALES - A man was shot multiple times while trying to force his way into his ex's apartment over the weekend, according to police.
The Gonzales Police Department said Tuesday that 35-year-old Joshua Jones of Donaldsonville was initially hospitalized but later died from his gunshot wounds.
Jones reportedly tried to break into the apartment on South Lanoux Avenue late Saturday night, while the victim's new boyfriend was also inside. Police said Jones was shot as he tried to shatter the bedroom window.
BULLHEAD CITY, Ariz.- June 16, 2023- The Bullhead City Police Department is investigating a double homicide. On June 16, 2023, at approximately 1749 hours, Officers responded to 3700 block of Rawhide Drive in reference to a 911 open line where a female was yelling for help. Dispatch received an additional call of a male stabbing a female. Officers responded and the scene was turned over to the Detectives. Through the course of their investigation, it was determined that there was an argument and a male subject, Aaron Michael Bryant, 31, of Eureka, California stabbed a male victim, Tommy Edward Hinton, 62 of Bullhead City, and a female victim, Annette Lee Hinton, 59, of Bullhead City, before being shot by a male neighbor. Both victims succumbed to their injuries. Aaron Michael Bryant is in custody.
A comment from the Bullhead City Police page: