A joint investigation by the Canton Police Department and the Texas Rangers revealed that Hicks had allegedly unlawfully forced entry into the residence and confronted the homeowner while armed with a handgun. The homeowner retrieved his own handgun and shot Hicks multiple times.
At present, the homeowner has not been charged. The case will be referred to a Van Zandt County grand jury for review pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The shooting happened in February on a cold, 6-degree night in south Minneapolis in a neighborhood that had seen an increase in armed robberies.
After checking the locked gate, surveillance video outside the home shows Martin Lee Johnson hopping the fence.
A motion light turns on as Johnson approaches the house.
According to police reports, the homeowner, a 53-year-old woman, heard Johnson "wiggle the door handle" and his steps on the deck, so she told her 26-year-old son who lives with her, and grabbed her handgun as Johnson entered the family's detached garage.
Tennessee Capitol
On April 21, 2022, the Tennessee House voted 64 to 28 to pass HB 1735. A similar bill in the Senate is known as SB 2291. The bill is an incremental step toward restoring Second Amendment rights to young adults. The bill requires the department of safety to issue an enhanced handgun carry permit to people who are at least 18 years of age, and meet the other requirements which apply to people 21 and older. Previously, the minimum age was 21. From legiscan.com, bill text:
(b) Except as provided in subsection (r), any resident of Tennessee who is a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, as defined by § 55-50-102, may apply to the department of safety for an enhanced handgun carry permit. If the applicant is at least eighteen (18) years of age and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm in this state pursuant to § 39-17-1307(b), 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), or any other state or federal law, and the applicant otherwise meets all of the requirements of this section, the department shall issue a permit to the applicant.
In a compromise, the bill prohibits people aged 18 to 20, who have the enhanced permit, from transporting or storing firearms at all sorts of schools; then grants exceptions to those with military connections, as listed in the bill:
(e) Notwithstanding subsection (a), this section does not apply to a person who is under twenty-one (21) years of age and transports or stores a firearm or firearm ammunition in the person's motor vehicle while on or utilizing a public or private parking area that is located on any public or private school campus, grounds, recreation area, athletic field or any other property owned, operated, or while in use by any board of education, school, college or university board of trustees, regents or directors for the administration of any public or private educational institution, unless the person:
(1) Is at least eighteen (18) years of age; and
(2)
(A) Is an honorably discharged or retired veteran of the United States armed forces;
(B) Is an honorably discharged member of the army national guard, the army reserve, the navy reserve, the marine corps reserve, the air national guard, the air force reserve, or the coast guard reserve, who has successfully completed a basic training program; or
(C) Is a member of the United States armed forces on active duty status or is a current member of the army national guard, the army reserve, the navy reserve, the marine corps reserve, the air national guard, the air force reserve, or the coast guard reserve, who has successfully completed a basic training program.
SECTION 5. This act takes effect July 1, 2022,
The Tennessee legislature has only a few more days to pass the reform bill if they are going to. The legislative session ends on May 7, 2022. The Senate has a large majority of Republicans, 27 to 6. If the bill passes the Judiciary committee and is voted on in the Senate, it will likely be sent to Governor Bill Lee for his signature. It is not certain that Governor Lee would sign the bill, but it seems likely. He signed the Constitutional Carry bill a year ago in 2021.
WKRN characterized HB 1735 as giving "18-year-olds the right to carry a gun." From whnt.com:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – If you’re 18, it is unlawful to smoke or drink before turning 21, but Tennessee House lawmakers want to give 18-year-olds the right to carry a gun.
Opponents say the bill would increase gun crimes and self-harm, but supporters say it’s a constitutional right all adults should have. HB 1735 lowers the age from 21 to 18 to lawfully carry a handgun openly or concealed.
As shown in the actual bill, the legislation does not "give" anyone anything. It simply allows 18-20 year olds the opportunity to apply for an enhanced carry permit.
Across the nation, permit holders have shown themselves to be more law abiding than police officers.
©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
SAN ANTONIO – A man shot a carjacker who tried to steal his car while he was pumping gas at a North Side gas station, police said.
San Antonio police said a driver pulled into the QuickTrip in the 9900 block of San Pedro near W. Ramsey and was putting gas in his Honda Accord when another man pulled up alongside his vehicle in a truck.
The man got out of the truck and into the driver’s seat of the Accord and tried to drive off, police said.
The computer system for the Yuma Regional Medical Center has been down for two days. It is extremely difficult to obtain any medical records or to accomplish the simplest medical procedure.
All has been shut down because of a cyber attack.
From YRMC press release on Facebook :
YUMA, Ariz. (April 26, 2022) – Out of an abundance of caution, following an attempted cyber attack that occurred on Monday afternoon, all YRMC computers systems were powered down and moved into downtime mode, which is a manual process. Effective blocks to the attempted attack have resulted in no patient information being compromised. As of Tuesday 3pm, YRMC continues to operate in a manual / downtime mode as systems are deemed secure.
The attack is having more repercussions than deemed by the press release. Sources have informed this correspondent almost nothing is can to be done, as professionals cannot obtain needed patient information, signed releases, or input any information into the system.
A few days earlier, there was a breach in this North Dakota system.
Adaptive Health Integrations faced a hacking incident that impacted 510,574 individuals, according to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) data breach portal. The incident was the third-largest reported healthcare data breach in 2022 so far.This warning was issued on April 1, 2022.
In February, the day after Vladmir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine, a notorious Russian cybercrime group called Conti announced online that they would target “the critical infrastructures” of any nations attempting to thwart Russia’s military actions. A week later, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a warning stating that Conti has specifically attacked health care institutions in the past.
There does not seem to be any national news of attacks. Readers are asked to include any local news they know of in the comments.
Dean Weingarten
TAMPA — The shooter who killed a man outside a downtown Tampa restaurant on Feb. 27 was acting in self-defense and will not face criminal charges, the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office has determined.
Prosecutors said an argument inside Bello Bar & Kitchen, 903 N Franklin St., extended outside that night, where the eventual shooter was thrown to the ground and attacked by three men: Adrian Diaz, Kevin Zayas and Freddy Santiago Jr.
Prosecutors said the shooter, whose name was not released, pulled his gun and fired multiple shots, with one bullet striking Diaz, 23, in the head and killing him. Zayas and Santiago, whose ages were not available, survived and will face battery charges, prosecutors said.
In the law of self defense of almost all states, If a person is attacked, and reasonably fears for their life, they may legally defend themselves with deadly force. A small minority of states require a person to retreat from the situation, if they can do so in complete safety.
In all states of which I am aware, a person may not use deadly force in self defense, if they provoked the attack with the intent of using deadly force.
It is not legal to start a fight so the person who started the fight can kill someone who they provoked.
Mere possession of an openly carried weapon is not legal provocation to attack.
The Left has been floating the idea that mere possession a weapon is provocation. They contend the sight of someone in possession of a weapon is sufficient provocation for a person to attack the person who possesses the weapon.
This creates a bizzaro world where mere open possession of a weapon is sufficient to justify a deadly attack on the possessor. Apply this to police. They almost always carry a deadly weapon, openly.
This concept is contrary to common sense and the experience of thousands of years. If a person has a weapon, people see a reason to leave the armed person alone. In the Kyle Rittenhouse incident, the prosecutor, ADA Binger, during a pre-trial hearing, said this:
“He was running around with a assault rifle type weapon, a very threatening, aggressive weapon. One that deters people, it is designed to deter people. It is designed to threaten others; to let them know, don’t mess with me, look what I’ve got.
During the trial. Binger did not claim mere possession of a firearm was provocation to be attacked, although he hinted at it. He claimed, on the basis of very fuzzy drone footage, that Kyle had momentarily pointed his rifle at two other people, and that was provocation for a third person, Rosenbaum, to attack Kyle. The jury did not accept this theory.
In a sane world, carrying a weapon is not a provocation to be attacked. The Left has worked hard to make it a provocation, in law. In an editorial about open carry in 2012, there was this; from usnews.com:
It is appropriate for law enforcement officers and the public to treat these situations as extremely dangerous. Open carry advocates claim they need a gun for self-defense. However, if the Trayvon Martin case has taught us anything, it is that an individual carrying a gun may misjudge a situation, think self-defense is called for, and erroneously—and often tragically—reach for the gun.
A jury decided the usnews.com editorial writer's portrayal of the Trayvon Martin case was erroneous. It was Martin who attacked George Zimmerman. It was Martin's judgement which was faulty, not Zimmerman's.
Here is an opinion published in The Hill, in November of 2019, before the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. The opinion is discussing the Wisconsin disorderly conduct law. From thehill.com:
The text of its disorderly conduct law criminally bans “violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct under circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance.” But absent a showing of “criminal or malicious intent,” a person may not be charged with disorderly conduct “for carrying or going armed with a firearm . . . without regard to whether the firearm is loaded or the firearm . . . is concealed or openly carried.”
Think about that. Being publicly “violent” or “abusive” is a potential crime in Wisconsin — unless it entails waiving around a loaded firearm.
The argument is false. The law does not allow being publicly "violent" or "abusive" simply because a person has a firearm. It states a person may not be charged with disorderly conduct for merely carrying or possessing a firearm or knife. Here is the relevant passage:
Unless other facts and circumstances that indicate a criminal or malicious intent on the part of the person apply, a person is not in violation of, and may not be charged with a violation of, this section for loading a firearm, or for carrying or going armed with a firearm or a knife, without regard to whether the firearm is loaded or the firearm or the knife is concealed or openly carried.
This correspondent followed what led to the passage of this Wisconsin law. In 2008 Brad Krause was planting a tree in his yard. He had a holstered pistol on his hip. He was charged, in Wisconsin, by West Allis police, with disorderly conduct. He fought the case. He won. From jsonline.com:
West Allis - As Brad Krause planted a tree in his yard last summer, a neighbor noticed that in addition to a shovel, Krause had a tool not usually required for yard work - a gun in a holster.
Police arrived and gave Krause a ticket alleging disorderly conduct, launching a case that a national gun-rights group has been watching for months.
On Tuesday, Krause won acquittal in what some advocates say is one of the first so-called open-carry gun cases heard in a Wisconsin court.
Municipal Judge Paul Murphy said he had reviewed several state statutes and court cases related to the right to keep and bear arms. 'There being no law whatsoever dealing with the issue of an unconcealed weapon or the so-called open carry is why we're here today,' Murphy said.
In the end, he determined Krause's actions did not rise to disorderly conduct and found him not guilty.
Milwaukee Police had been charging people with disorderly conduct for the mere carry of firearms, for decades. The legislature finally had enough, and reformed the law to stop the abuse.
Here is a later opinion published on September 10, 2020, from Bloomberg, written by Noah Feldman a former Harvard Law editor:
The trouble begins when you start applying the legal rules to someone in Rittenhouse’s situation, namely, someone who has carried an AR-15-style weapon to what is intended to be a peaceful protest. In a commonsense universe, this act itself would appear to be a provocation.
Yet under Wisconsin law, adults are entitled to carry around their licensed firearms in public places. An open-carry law means that prosecutors would have a tough time convincing a jury that simply carrying an assault rifle counts as a provocation.
As a lawyer, Feldman should have known Wisconsin law does not require a license to openly carry firearms. It never has. Wisconsin law has never forbidden people 16 years old and older, from carrying long guns.
To paraphrase Noah Feldman with a more commonsense observation; the trouble is when you start defining the peaceful carry of a firearm as a provocation. Hundreds of people saw Rittenhouse and many others carrying firearms. Initially, only Rosenbaum decided to attack Kyle Rittenhouse. The person who was supposedly "provoked" was mentally ill Rosenbaum, who was suicidal and who had spent many years in prison.
Rosenbaum had threatened to kill Rittenhouse repeatedly. If there was provocation, it appears the provocation was Rosenbaum attempting to provoke Rittenhouse to aid in another Rosenbaum suicide attempt.
Three others decided to attack Rittenhouse as he ran to turn himself in to the police, after he shot Rosenbaum. According to testimony under oath, during the trial, the mob was urged to attack Rittenhouse by the same man who had urged Rosenbaum to attack Rittenhouse.
The man who urged the mob to go after Rittenhouse, had a checkered police record. The three attackers had multiple police histories and problems with authority. Two of those attacked Rittenhouse with weapons and were shot by him. One was killed, the other was wounded. It was all recorded on video, from multiple angles.
The jury did not accept the prosecutor's theory that Rittenhouse had "provoked" Rosenbaum.
Analysis:
The idea of a person being armed as a provocation to attack appears to flow from a simple premise on the left: A person doing something a leftist does not like, is a provocation to attack them. It is part of the broader philosophical abandonment of the rule of law.
Evidence for this theory exists in the left's theory of speech from any opponent. Speech from an opponent is considered to be violence, and worthy of attack. Violence, from the left, on the other hand, is considered to be speech.
When leftists surround a car and beat on it; that is not provocation; when leftist shoot at people; that is not provocation; when people the left does not agree with, display weapons; that is considered provocation by the left.
This is a retreat to tribalism by the Left: Those who agree with us are people; those who disagree with us are the enemy.
Pundit and radio personality Dan Bongino puts it this way: Conservatives think leftists are people with bad ideas; Leftists think Conservatives are bad people.
Part of this attitude toward the open carry of weapons by people other than government agents comes from the Left's worship of government as god. A private person openly carrying a firearm is a direct and obvious statement:
The Constitution means something; the Bill of Rights means something; the power of government is limited.
The Left hates the idea of limits on government. For that reason, gun control is in Progressivism's DNA.
Defining open carry of weapons as a legal provocation is Orwellian word manipulation.
©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
FADETTE, Ala. (WDHN) — Early Friday morning, a Wiregrass homeowner shot an intruder twice with a handgun — after telling him to leave and then a struggle between the two.
Authorities say the suspect was in the process of burglarizing the rural residence when the homeowner awakened to a sound from the back door.
Emergency responders arrived at a trailer off Audy Lane in eastern Geneva County’s Fadette community, just after 3 a.m. this morning.
FLINT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJRT) - Police say an 80-year-old man shot and killed an intruder in a Flint Township residence Thursday evening.
A 31-year-old man allegedly broke into a residence in the 1000 block of West Bristol Road around 8:45 p.m. The 80-year-old resident confronted him with a weapon and fired at least one gunshot.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Police say a woman shot her husband twice,
possibly in self-defense, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
Police say the 34-year-old woman fired from a car at Chew and Brinton streets around midnight Friday.
SPRING, Texas – An investigation is ongoing after a Spring homeowner shot an unknown man after he reportedly refused to leave her property, according to deputies with Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office.
The incident happened in the 2500 block of Joyful Forest Drive in the Breckenridge subdivision.
Deputies said the man was shot in the forearm by the homeowner.
Grizzly bear downed at 10 feet by Jimmy Cox using a 10mm pistol
As the author collected documented incidents of handguns fired in defense against bears, a pattern emerged. The recorded incidents of pistols being fired in defense against bears overwhelmingly occurred from 1960 onward.
The author and associates have found 125 documented cases where handguns have been fired in defense against bears, from 1890 to present. Two of the 125 cases were considered to be indeterminate as to success or failure. An additional 20 cases, where handguns were used with other lethal means, are considered combination defenses. They are not included in this analysis.
The total numbers include indeterminate cases, but not the combination cases. 95% of all the documented cases occurred from 1960 onward. 76% of all cases occurred from 2000 forward.
Three phenomena have contributed to create this lopsided effect.
First, while pistols were used against bears prior to the development of the cartridge firing handgun, (about 1840 - 1870) much of the use was in hunting. There the handgun was used as an ancillary device to long guns.
Bears tended to be hunted hard on the outskirts of settled areas. They were considered pests. Bounties were offered for them. Bears had no legal protection. Bears, of necessity, became wary of humans, and seldom attacked humans other than when hunted and wounded.
Second, few records were written of handguns being used against bears during this period. Some hunts were recorded, as were a few incidents involving bears. Most involved long guns. What few records there were are difficult to find. Records became more common after 1960, and much easier to find after the Internet information explosion in the 1990's.
Third, while human populations continued to increase, bear populations declined, then started to increase, with the greatest increase from about 1960 onward.
To sum up, an increase in effective handguns, record keeping and the ability to search records, and increasing populations of humans and bears do much to explain the rapidly expanding number of documented cases of pistol defense against bears.
After the cartridge revolver became dominant, about 1870, the concurrent increase in the expansion of literacy and handgun use started to produce records.
In Meet Mr. Grizzly, by Montague Stevens, there are examples where a revolver was used to finish off a wounded bear. It is clear from the examples shown in Stevens work, that by the 1880s, bears, even in the wilderness of New Mexico, were extremely wary of people. The number of bears were declining with unlimited hunting. Bears which survived did so by keeping far away from humans.
The first documented case of a cartridge revolver being fired in defense against a bear occurred about 1890, documented in the book "Colt on the Trail". In 1906 there is a case of a revolver being fired against a bear. It is unknown if the revolver was a cartridge or percussion firearm, or what caliber it was. It could not be determined if firing the revolver was successful or unsuccessful in driving off the bear. Between 1890 and 1959, we have recorded six documented cases, about 1 per decade.
Record keeping has increased enormously since 1960.
By 1960, several events had changed the landscape to increase both defensive uses of handguns against bears, and the recording of those incidents.
Alaska became a state. The population of humans was growing rapidly. The .357 and .44 magnums had been introduced and were gaining in popularity. Effective, reliable handguns were common. Conservation movements were calling for the management of bears as a game animal. Bear populations were starting to increase. The 1973 listing of grizzly bears as an endangered species started to create a population of bears which did not fear humans. More people were documenting their experiences with bears. When the Internet became widely available in the middle 1990s, those incidents became significantly more accessible.
In the decade from 1960 to 1969, we have discovered five documented cases where a handgun was fired in defense against bears, nearly as many as the previous seven decades!
The trend continued for the next three decades. From 1970 - 1979, five cases; from 1980 - 1989, five cases; from 1990 to 1999, eight cases.
The Internet changed everything. Several trends came together for a large increase in the documented cases of handguns being fired in defense against bears.
By 2000, a great many publications were being recorded on the Internet, making discovery of documented defensive use of pistols exponentially easier. Bear populations of all three North American bears (black, grizzly, and polar) were increasing and thriving. Human populations were increasing and thriving. Bears were so well protected, many had lost fear of humans. By 2000, the trend to restore the right to bear arms was well underway. More people were carrying handguns.
For the decade 2000 to 2009, 30 documented cases of handguns being fired in defense against bears have been discovered.
For the decade 2010 to 2019, 55 documented cases of handguns being fired in defense against bears have been discovered. In 2020 and 2021, nine cases have been documented and discovered.
The national ban on carrying firearms for defense in national parks was removed in 2010. Three of the 64 documented cases since 2010 have occurred in national parks.
The trend indicates we should expect 5-6 new cases each year, on average, to be documented and discovered. Populations of bears and humans continue to increase. More people are carrying handguns for defense of self and others. The ability to communicate and record events continues to expand as never before.
A countervailing trend is the demonization of people who defend against animal attack. This motivates people who fire a handgun in defense against a bear to keep their experience private, to avoid documentation out of fear of reprisal.
There is a strong bias against reporting when a handgun is fired defensively against a bear, and no human is hurt or killed. This is countered, in the case of grizzly bears, by federal law which makes it a misdemeanor to fail to report the defensive act. No such federal law exists for black bears. This implies a bias toward reporting grizzly bear incidents and against reporting of black bear incidents.
The bias against reporting black bear incidents is somewhat countered by increased ability to communicate, and by the understanding that factual knowledge of bear behavior is necessary for effective management of bear populations. As communication improves, more cases will be documented.
The number of cases remains insignificant compared to bear populations.
The discovery of 55 documented cases from 2020 to 2029 is a reasonable prediction.
A Philadelphia man who shot and killed a home invader who was pretending to be a police officer had a valid permit to carry and will not face any charges, officials announced Tuesday.
Philadelphia police say the home invasion and shooting happened on the 7200 block of Battersby Street in Mayfair just after 10 p.m. Sunday.
Police say Adriel Alverado, 36, and a second suspect, went into the home of a 25-year-old man. The two suspects were wearing masks and claimed to be police officers, investigators said. Alverado was also wearing a federal agent gold shield around his neck, according to police.
On 11 April, 2022, the Biden administration released the final version of a proposed rule which changes the definition of what is a firearm. The rule was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland on April 10th. The final rule published in the Federal Register will be the definitive copy.
In the last days of the Johnson administration, in 1968, President Johnson managed to push through an unpopular yet ineffective and costly bill: the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA 1968). Johnson's legendary ability to twist arms and manage votes, supported by an all-out onslaught in the media, used the assassination of Robert Kennedy as the crises needed to pass the bill.
President Johnson was disappointed the bill did not include national registration of all guns and a national carry permit system. From presidency.uscb, quoting Johnson in his public remarks on GCA 1968:
Congress adopted most of our recommendations. But this bill--as big as this bill is--still falls short, because we just could not get the Congress to carry out the requests we made of them. I asked for the national registration of all guns and the licensing of those who carry those guns. For the fact of life is that there are over 160 million guns in this country--more firearms than families. If guns are to be kept out of the hands of the criminal, out of the hands of the insane, and out of the hands of the irresponsible, then we just must have licensing. If the criminal with a gun is to be tracked down quickly, then we must have registration in this country.
In the late 1960's, it was thought gun registration and licensing would reduce violent crime. The definitive studies of English gun control failure had yet to be published, or the failures of Canadian or Michigan handgun registration to solve violent crimes.
Gun registration was a bridge too far for American politicians.
The 1968 bill was an obvious prelude to a national gun registration system. It put in place a gun tracing system which had virtually no effect on crime, yet was costly and intrusive. After GCA 1968 went into effect, homicide and homicide with guns, continued to climb for 25 years. It only started to decline after the number of guns in the United States had doubled and states started to remove legal constraints on carrying guns.
Gun tracing in the United States has been a costly failure. The system was mandated in the 1968 bill. Instead of expanding the system, it should be eliminated. Bureaucracies focus primarily on their survival and expansion. It is not surprising the ATF paints gun tracing as important and useful. From the atf.gov:
As discussed in the NPRM, tracing is an integral tool for Federal, State, local, and international law enforecement agencies to utilize in their criminal investigations, and the proliferation of untraceable firearms severely undermines this process.
What is missing, is any serious analysis showing firearms tracing is effective in stopping the misuse of firearms or is in any way cost effective. Virtually all gun tracing occurs after the fact. Privately Made Firearms (PMF) in the ATF document, do not kill people any better than guns manufactured in regular factories. Once a gun is stolen or enters the black market, tracing it to the original retail sale does nothing to stop crime. There have always been millions of untraceable guns in the United States. Gun tracing is an exceedingly expensive and ineffective tool. Few firearm traces result in criminal prosecutions. It is less effective than gun registration. Gun registration is exceptionally ineffective, expensive and intrusive. It does not reduce violent crime.
If the resources used to collect and trace firearms data were instead used to investigate and prosecute actual violent crime, the money would be much better spent.
The point of the ATF rule change is to make it harder for individuals to make their own guns, without the gun having a serial number. One of the key differences is the possession of tools and jigs to make a firearm are now considered to be part whether or not a "kit" is a firearm.
Never before have tools to make a firearm been banned because they allow someone to make a firearm more easily. The idea seems to be: tools make it easier to make a firearm, therefore they make it easier to "convert" a piece of metal or plastic into a firearm. This, it appears, is meant to mean the plastic or metal piece is then "easily convertible".
The theory appears to be the simple, discredited idea: More guns, more illicit violence.
There is no good evidence to show this is true.
Making it more difficult for private individuals to make their own firearms is a purpose without any benefit. From page 132 of the document:
This rule is necessary to insure the continuing fulfillment of the congressional intent to mark and allow for tracing of all firearms.
The congressional intent is contested. Millions of firearms were grandfathered without serial numbers. There never was a requirement that privately manufactured pistols, rifles or shotguns have a serial number. It was always known not all firearms, not even close to all firearms, would be marked to allow for tracing.
The intent to avoid a national registration system was much more clear.
This correspondent had to dig to determine whether AR15 upper receivers will be the part required to have a serial number when and if this rule goes into effect. It appears that it will. From page 135 of the document:
For this reason, ATF is finalizing this rule to require placement of an individual serial number on a single frame or receiver of a given firearm.
The statement appears to indicate the serial number will be on either the upper receiver or the lower receiver (where it is now), but not both. Then on pages 324-325:
(2) The term "receiver" means the part of a rifle, shotgun, or projectile weapon other than a handgun or variants thereof, that provides housing or structure for the primary component designed to block or seal the breach prior to initiation of the firing sequence (i.e., bolt, breechblock, or equivalent), even if pins or other attachments are required to connect such component to the housing or structure.The above statement indicates the serial number would be on the upper receiver, not the lower receiver.
On page 331, it is clear the existing stock of AR15 type firearms will be grandfathered in with the serial number on the lower receiver.
Update: It may be AR15 type firearms will be grandfathered in with lower receiver serial numbers.
The new rule adds considerable complexity to the existing regulatory system. It is inspired, in part, by court cases highlighting the difficulties with the previous rule.
The ATF, as expected, shrugs off any claims they are exceeding their authority under the non-delegation doctrine of the Constitution or the Administrative Procedures Act.
There are numerous other changes listed in the document. The actual proposed rule is stated in the last 45 pages. The ATF response to critiques in pages 62 - 280 are primarily about comments received in the rule making process. They offer an excellent education in the critique of the rule and the ways ATF justifies itself.
Other major changes include restricting the location of markings on silencers; requiring multiple serial numbers on receivers which can be assembled from multiple parts; requiring maintenance of FFL records forever, instead of ending at 20 years; and serious uncertainty of what a firearm receiver, or kit is. Essentially, ATF would retain the ability to determine such on a case by case basis.
Never before was the ownership or purchase of tools to make a firearm considered part of the equation of whether a firearm was possessed or not.
The rule will be challenged in the courts. It is scheduled to go into effect 120 days after publication.
It is likely the demand for uppers to build AR15 type rifles and pistols will increase during that period.
BEVERLY HILLS, Texas — An alleged 'self-defense' shooting is under investigation by the Beverly Hills Police Department after a man called police saying he had shot a man on Tuesday.
Beverly Hills PD say around 3:57 p.m., they received a call about a 24-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound at 708 S. Valley Mills Drive.
Police say when they arrived to the scene, they found the suspected shooter had fled, according to the news release.
After further investigation, it was found that the suspected shooter had called the Waco Police Department claiming to have shot a person in self-defense.
On March 9, 2022, the Missouri House voted to eliminate the gun free zones which had been placed on Missouri public transportation by the legislature. Amtrak is excluded. The vote was 101 to 40. Five House members voted present. From HB 1462 at mo.gov:
Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or chapter 70, 577,or 578 to the contrary, a person carrying a firearm concealed on or about his or her person who is lawfully in possession of a valid concealed carry permit or endorsement shall not be prohibited or impeded from accessing or using any publicly funded transportation system and shall not be harassed or detained for carrying a concealed firearm on the property, vehicles, or conveyances owned, contracted,or leased by such systems that are accessible to the public. For purposes of this subsection, "publicly funded transportation system "means the property, equipment, rights-of-way, or buildings, whether publicly or privately owned and operated, of an entity that receives public funds and holds itself out to the general public for the transportation of persons. This includes portions of a public transportation system provided through a contract with a private entity but excludes any corporation that provides intercity passenger train service on railroads throughout the United States or any private partnership in which the corporation engages.
This correspondent was able to talk to Mirhad Hasanovic, the legislative assistant to Representative Adam Schnelting. Mirhad explained the bill was amended in the House to reform more of Missouri law than the ban on guns in public transportation.
As sent to the Senate, the bill reverses the presumption that people may not carry in churches without specific permission from the pastor.
If church officials want to ban people from carrying concealed in their church, the bill would require permit holders to be notified before they could be prosecuted for carrying in the church without permission to do so.
This is the way carry on most private property is treated in the United States. Armed people have to be notified they are not welcome before any prosecution can take place.
The bill lowers the age requirement to apply for a carry permit from 19 to 18.
The bill waives the training requirement to obtain the Missouri concealed carry permit if the person has a military pistol marksmanship award.
HB 1462 removes knuckles from the prohibited weapons list.
On April 5, the SCS in the Senate voted to do pass HB 1462.
According Mirhad, the Senate committee added some sweeteners to the bill as it came from the house. The Senate addition removes switchblade knives and silencers/gun mufflers from the list of weapons prohibited by Missouri law.
It is likely the entire Senate will pass the bill if it comes to a vote.
The key is for the Senate leadership to schedule the bill for a vote before the end of the session on May 14.
The bill has been sent to the Senate in previous years, but died without being acted on.
With the additions, the bill has become a significant Second Amendment restoration bill for Missouri. As with many Second Amendment oriented gun law reforms, the votes are there to pass it.
Many bills die for lack of attention.
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police say an armed home intruder impersonating a police officer was shot and killed by a Mayfair resident Sunday night.
Authorities say the shooting happened on the 7200 block of Battersby Street just after 10 p.m.
A guest at a Chicago hotel exchanged gunfire with a would-be robber inside his room late Sunday night.
Police say the man, an unnamed 53-year-old, was staying at the Godfrey hotel when an unknown individual knocked on his door at 11:30 p.m. When the victim opened the door, the attacker forced his way inside, holding a gun and demanding the victim's property, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
On Tuesday, April 12, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed SB319, the Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) bill. The bill became effective when the Governor signed the bill.
Second Amendment supporters have been attempting pass Constitutional Carry through the Georgia legislature for years. Governor Kemp pledged support for the measure in 2018. From fox5 atlanta.com:
Kemp said the bill is a public safety measure.
"SB 319 makes sure that law-abiding Georgians — law-abiding Georgians, including out daughters and your family too — can protect themselves without having the permission of the state government. The constitution of the United States gives us that right, not the government," Kemp said Tuesday. "HB 218 ensures that individuals who are licensed to carry in another state are also authorized to do so here in Georgia."
The governor initially promised the measure when he first ran for governor in 2018, but little was done to advance it. It’s been revived now that Kemp faces opposition in this year’s primary from former U.S. Republican Sen. David Perdue and others. Longtime proponents of gun rights have credited Kemp’s advocacy for moving the issue forward.
In 2022 Governor Kemp is in a tight primary race, in part because of his lack of performance during the 2020 elections. More and more evidence is accumulating of significant irregularities during the election in Georgia, which was a pivotal state in the presidential election.
Governor Kemp vigorously championed Constitutional Carry in Georgia during his primary campaign. The large signing ceremony for the bill was carried out in front of Gable Sporting Goods. Gable Sporting Goods is a long established sporting goods store in Douglas, Georgia, which is in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
With Governor Kemp's signature, Georgia becomes the fourth state to pass Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) in 2022, and the 25th member of the Constitutional Carry club in the United States. Half of all states have now restored their legal system to situation where no permits to carry were required, as was the case in all the United States in 1791 when the Second Amendment, as part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified. The 25 states who have restored the right to carry handguns in most public places, openly or concealed are:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
With the addition of Georgia, states where no permit to carry is required cover about 2,343,089 square miles or 61.6% of the land area of the United States.
Constitutional Carry has become a strong movement as people seek a return to a Constitutionally limited government in the United States. In 2002, only Vermont had Constitutional Carry. It had always maintained the right to carry without a permit, openly or concealed. In 2003 Alaska enacted a Constitutional Carry law. Arizona followed in 2010, Wyoming in 2011, and Arkansas in 2014. From 2015 to 2022, 20 more states joined the club.
Nebraska narrowly failed to join the club, by two votes in its unicameral legislature, the day before Governor Kemp signed Constitutional Carry in Georgia. Pennsylvania and Louisiana both passed bills with strong majorities, only to have Democrat governors veto them.
©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
A would-be carjacker remained hospitalized Friday in New Orleans after his intended victim shot him in the neck.
The wounded 17-year-old arrived unresponsive Thursday night at Tulane Medical Center, where police also found his alleged accomplice in the botched Bywater theft, a law enforcement source said. The second suspect, also 17, reportedly admitted participating in the crime, the source said, and the Police Department planned to book both with armed robbery and illegal possession of a gun.
LANCING, Tenn. (WATE) — A Morgan County man was shot and killed by his son on Thursday after the elder man allegedly threatened a caretaker with a large knife, according to District Attorney General Russell Johnson’s office.
According to authorities, 92-year-old Lillard Daniel was fatally shot in his home by his son in defense of the elderly man’s caretaker, whom investigators believe was in danger of serious bodily injury or death. Daniel’s son Ted Daniel, a Texas resident, had been visiting his father when the incident occurred.
A release states the elder Daniel had been arguing with his female caretaker and had taken up a long knife. The son pleaded with his father to put the knife down and to quit threatening her; the elder Daniel had been through other caretakers before and the son told his father it was his last opportunity before being placed in a nursing home.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro Nashville Police Department's Violent Crimes division is investigating an attempted home burglary that took place early Tuesday morning.
Officers responded to a shooting call around 7:50 a.m. in the 3000 block of Andrew Jackson Way.
Police report that a father woke up to the sound of glass breaking in the bedroom of his young son and near the front door of their apartment. The father got his firearm and opened his bedroom door.
The Constitutional Carry bill for Nebraska, LB 773 has failed to pass cloture on the filibuster. It is dead for 2022.
On March 11, 2022, the Nebraska legislature passed LB 773 with the required 33 votes to overcome the filibuster in the State's unicameral legislature. Nebraska's only legislative chamber is the Senate. After the bill was assured of passage, three senators switched their votes, presumably to avoid criticism for voting against the bill in the first place.
On April 11, LB 773, the Nebraska Constitutional Carry bill failed to pass the vote for closure of the filibuster with 31 votes for, 9 votes against, 6 votes present but not voting, and three votes excused and not voting. The bill needed 33 votes to enforce cloture and move forward.
Nebraska's unique system requires each bill to run the gauntlet of three chances to filibuster, the General session (passed on March 11), the Special session (failed). The final vote became unnecessary.
This ends the chance for Constitutional carry in 2022, in spite of the best efforts of Representative Brewer, who sponsored the bill, and Senate Speaker Mike Hilgers. An earlier vote on April 11 failed to pass Senator Brewers attempt at compromise, amendment AM2106. The amendment would have allowed Omaha to retain an abbreviated version of its current gun registration system.
The three senators who switched their votes during the last cloture vote on the bill, on March 11 were instrumental in the cloture vote losing on April 11.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says a man who shot a 16-year-old early Monday morning in the west valley did so in self-defense.
According to Las Vegas police officer Larry Hadfield, the incident occurred at about 6:05 a.m. Monday near Flamingo and Fort Apache roads.
Hadfield said an unrelated man was walking in the area and encountered the teen, who he then got into a dispute with. The teen, according to police, pointed a gun at the man, threatening himHOUSTON — A man disguised in scrubs died after being shot during an attempted home invasion, according to the Houston Police Department.
The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 12500 block of Cooperstown Drive in southeast Houston.
Police said an older woman reported hearing a knock at her door when she saw the man dressed to look like a nurse or home health care worker on her porch.
Photo Courtesy Todd Orr, 1 October, 2016, Gallatin National Forest, text by Dean Weingarten
The author and his associates have been researching the effectiveness of pistols when they are fired as a defense against bears for several years. The research started as an attempt to find cases where pistols were ineffective.
In October of 2016, a poster on freerepublic.com claimed (post 28 at the link) there were numerous failures when people attempted to use pistols as a defensive tool against bears. The author knew there were several cases where the use of a pistol resulted in an effective defense.
Because access to handguns, bear spray, knives, rifles, and shotguns all involve similar problems, only cases where a handgun was actually fired are considered. None of these systems do any good if they cannot be accessed in time to be used to stop an attack.
Months, then years of searching the Internet, books, and official sources for documented cases of failure found three documented failures and over a hundred documented cases of success (there were 10 cases where combinations of pistols and other potentially lethal items were used).
In June of 2021, the count of documented cases where pistols or handguns alone were fired in defense against bears stood at 104. One of those was discovered to be a duplicate and corrected. Since then, another 20 cases have been found. Those cases raise the number to 123. Of the 123 cases, three documented cases exist where the firing of the handgun did not stop the attack by driving off or killing the bear or bears involved.
When the number of cases reached 100, publishing the whole on the Internet at AmmoLand became time consuming and unwieldy. With this update, additional cases will be published as time permits. The statistics will be updated. The last update will be available, but not incorporated into a single article.
Readers will be able to access the previous articles to read the accounts of each incident and reach their own conclusions. The author remains committed to include all documented instances where pistols were fired in defense against bears.
Most cases are not documented. There is a strong bias against publication of cases where no human was injured or killed. If an armed human is attacked by a bear, and the human successfully drives off or kills the bear, there isn't much of a story to be published. Conversely, if a bear kills or injures a human, it is almost always documented, at least since modern cartridge pistols have become available. 13 of the 20 additions noted below were not documented in the major media.
Here is the link to previous 103 documented cases for handguns, including statistics and combinations.
Here is the link to latest eleven additional documented combination cases.With this update, there are 123 documented cases where pistols alone were fired in defense against bears. Three of those cases were failures. The success rate is 98%.
Here are the latest additions to the handgun only data set. Readers are advised to consider each individual case and reach their own conclusions.
I was standing in a little clearing about fifteen feet in diameter and I couldn't see the bear until she burst out of the thicket, heading straight for me, clicking her teeth like castanets. I saw black in my sights and pulled the trigger and the old bear skidded to a halt, right at my feet. I put another bullet into the yearling, and then I sat down on the log by the trap, my heart thumping as I realized how close I had been to tangling with that mad sow bear.
I walked over to look at the mother bear and saw that my bullet had hit her directly in the top center of the nose, just below the eyes, and had gone straight into her brain, killing her instantly.
The author, Ralph Flowers, was severely mauled twice in his professional bear hunting career. In both cases, he did not have his .357 revolver with him.
About March 5, 2000, from the guardian.com, enroute to North Pole, .44 magnum, polar bear.
But then, part of Göran's problem was talking so ingenuously. It left him wide open to attack in his home country. I asked him again about the killing of the polar bear.
'So you had a rifle with you?'
'No, a hand gun.'
'What, like a Magnum?'
'That's right.' He paused. He wanted accuracy, not approximation, just as he did preparing for his adventures. 'It was a .44 Magnum.'
Göran held the gun in his bare hands for half an hour, risking frostbite in the freezing air, calculating precisely the moment when an attack became inevitable. And at that moment he pulled the trigger.
August 18, 2002, Western Talkeettna Mountains, Alaska, 10mm grizzly bear. Personal interview with Jack Jefferson in 2021. Included in AmmoLand article on 10mm.
A problem bear was becoming much too familiar with people and property at the lodge on a lake. Several cabins had been broken into and ransacked for food on the other side of the lake. Professional guide Jake Jefferson had his 10mm built by his brother on a six inch longside 1911 frame, with an eight shot magazine.
He attempted to haze the bear away from the lodge, and fired six shots near the bear, which indifferently moved a little way away. It came back quickly and tore up a bunch of empty coolers.
Jake looked for another firearm, but did not find any close to hand.
Jake heard "hey bear" from the other side of the lodge.
As he came around the corner, the grizzly was quartering toward him at 10-15 yards. He only had two shots left. He fired one into the back pair of ribs, which later showed to have missed the chest cavity, and traveled through the abdominal cavity to the hide on the other side.
The bear immediately ran off. It was nearly 11 p.m. with a fair amount of light, but getting darker. Jake decided to wait for morning to track the bear.
Next morning, Jake found a very sick bear on top of a beaver food pile, in the lake, with only its head above water.
Jake used a rifle to finish off the bear. The boar squared at 7 1/2 feet.
Jake had a tag for the bear. It was listed as a hunting kill, not a defense of life and property.
5 October, 2010 Boulder Basin Wyoming, Grizzly Bear .44 mag birdshot! AmmoLand request via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), p. 856.
At about 9 a.m., a guide and hunter were traveling in heavy cover, on horseback. A grizzly bear charged them from close range. The hunter started yelling at the bear as soon as it was seen. He drew a Ruger .44 magnum from the holster at the same time. As the bear charged the men on horseback, the hunter fired at the bear when it was 13 steps away. The revolver was loaded with .44 Special birdshot, in anticipation of shooting grouse for the pot. The bear ran off about 50 yards, then turned back and looked at them. It was uncertain if the bear was hit or injured, because the hunter and guide were having difficulty controlling the horses.
September 13, 2011 .38 Special, Wyoming Grizzly Bear, AmmoLand article. FOIA Page 1144
Hunter Two had seen Hunter One darting up the downed timber, and the bears coming at them. Hunter Two ran to climb a downed tree near Hunter One, tossing his bow to facilitate his ascent. Hunter Two slipped and landed on his back, looking up to see the larger bear looming over him. He brought up his foot to kick at the bear, and the bear grabbed his right ankle. He yelled at Hunter One to shoot the bear!
At this point, Hunter One had drawn his .38 revolver. He fired two shots as the bear attacked Hunter two. The bear disengaged from Hunter Two, fell down, and started to come up toward Hunter One. Hunter One fired another shot at the bear, and it went down for good. Hunter One reported all shots were fired from six feet or less.
September 17, 2012 East Fork of
Wind River, Wyoming. .44 mag Taurus , Grizzly bear FOIA page 276
A hunter was stalking elk on game trail. He walked up on sow Grizzly and cub, seeing them about 15 yards away, digging in the ground. He drew his Taurus .44 magnum as he quietly attempted to back out of area. The sow sensed him, jumped uphill, then charged. He fired four times and she dropped about three yards from him.
Investigators found the physical evidence was consistent with his account. Three bullet wounds were found in the field necropsy of the bear, one through the heart.
September 29 2012, .45 Long Colt, Wyoming, Venus Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Grizzly bear Pages 36 and 1302 FOIA
At about 3:30 p.m. Two elk archery hunters had processed a bull elk they shot at about 12:30 p.m. They were returning to camp when they saw another elk and were discussing how to approach it. They were about a quarter mile from the processed elk carcass. They saw a grizzly sow and one or two cubs. They retreated a short ways, but the sow decided to charge them. The hunter who had arrowed the elk drew a Ruger Blackhawk revolver, chambered in .45 Long Colt. He dropped to his left knee, as the bear charged from 25 yds away. He fired and missed at 12 yards; fired a second shot at 8 yards, and hit the bear.
The bear retreated toward the cub or cubs, then charged again. The hunter fired three more shots. He hit on the fifth shot. The bear fell and started spinning. As this was happening, the hunters retreated. The pistol shooter retrieved ammunition from his pack and reloaded. The sow went back to the cub, grabbed the cub by back and shook it. The hunters retreated to camp. The next day they investigated and found the dead sow and a cub with what appeared to be a broken back.
The pause was momentary; not a full stop of the charge. The lead hunter was able to start shooting from a range of six feet. The grizzly grabbed the lead hunter by the left thigh and the hunter went down with the bear on top of him.
As the bear closed with the lead hunter, the middle and last hunters had seen the bear, dropped their bows, and drew their pistols, a .44 magnum and a 9mm. They started shooting.
With the lead hunter down and the bear in his lap, he put the .45 against its head and shot his last rounds. The bear went limp. The lead hunter was able to crawl out from under the big bear.
Shortly afterward, the bear was seen to move, and the hunters fired two more rounds into the chest cavity from the side. The hunters estimated they had fired 19 cartridges at the bear; 8 rounds of .45, 6 rounds of .44 magnum, and about 4 rounds of 9mm.
May 16, 2016, 10mm Black Mountain in Wyoming East Fork WHMA Grizzly. Included in an AmmoLand article. FOIA page 426.
On May 16, 2016, a man was looking for shed antlers on Black Mountain in the Wyoming East Fork Wildlife Habitat Management Area. A sow grizzly with two cubs of the year charged him. He fired several warning shots at the sows feet, but the bear kept coming. He shot seven or eight times, and emptied his pistol, as the bear rolled past him and hit a tree. He left the area. The grizzly bear was never found. Rain had washed away the evidence. No blood or hair was found.
The son yelled at the bear and drew his Springfield sub-compact. He did not have a round in the chamber. The Springfield comes with a 9 round and a 10 round magazine. He chambered a round and checked to be sure the safety was off. The pistol was new. He had never fired it before. His father had owned the same model for some time.
The son noticed, as the bear continued to run at him, that it appeared to be in full charge mode, with its ears laid back. He noticed a cub was with the sow. As the sow came within 30 yards of him, he started firing at the bear and moving to put a small tree between him and the charging grizzly.
The son fired his final rounds as the charging bear approached within feet. The bear went down and slid downslope about five yards where it died. In the investigation which followed. Ten .40 caliber brass were found at the scene. The brass was within 2-3 yard of the dead bear.
September 14, 2016 Ennise, Montana, sow grizzly, bear spray in left hand,
.44 mag Ruger Super Blackhawk in right hand. FOIA Page 246.
A guide and three clients were returning from a day of hunting. They observed a sow grizzly and cub on the trail. The guide instructed his clients to dismount their horses and ready their bear spray. He held bear spray in his left hand a and a .44 magnum Ruger Super Blackhawk in his right hand. The party made noise, as they did so, the sow stood up, then charged the group. There was a strong head wind, so the bear spray was not used. The guide fired four shots then the sow ran off. The guide believed he missed the first two, shots, and may have hit on the third and fourth shots. At the third shot, the bear veered off trail.
During the investigation, no blood trail or bear carcass was found.
Four men hunting were hunting elk and deer in the Squaw Creek drainage. They had killed a nice elk and a deer, and were packing them out on horseback. They were all on foot, walking the horses through the heavily wooded creek bottom. At a narrow point in the creek, one of them saw a bear coming through the heavy woods. As the bear charged, the horse he was leading took off.
Two of the hunters shot at the bear as it approached to within 5 feet of one of their party. Both shot .44 magnum revolvers. One shot first, from about 15 feet, and the bear turned, then stopped and came back. The second hunter had been able to draw his .44 mag and then fired two shots at the bear from close range. The bear ran off. Investigators did not find any bear carcass. One of the hunters had been mauled by a bear in 2010, and had $30,000 in medical bills.
May 31, 2020, 9mm, black bear Sevierville, TN
Witnesses said the bear swatted the dog out of the way and continued to approach the woman. A man who lived in the home came out on the porch and fired several rounds from a handgun towards the bear to stop it.
He said he was aiming at the ground in front of the bear and didn't realize he had hit it until the bear was found dead behind the home the the next day.
More information confirming 9mm as the caliber of the pistol
More than a week after a grizzly bear was injured by a pistol-packing archery hunter in the Madison Range, searchers have been unable to find the wounded bruin.The bear charged two hunters on Sept. 14 at the head of Eldridge Creek, according to a Custer Gallatin National Forest press release. One of the hunters fired his handgun several times in the direction of the bear as it charged within a few feet.
June 25, 2021 South Lake Tahoe, California Black Bear pistol unknown
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - More details have become available on the shooting, and subsequent death, of a bear on June 25 in the county area of South Lake Tahoe.
A person renting a vacation home on Pioneer Trail last week returned to the house after going out for dinner with the other occupants of the home. Upon entry into the home on the bottom level, this person heard noises coming from the second-floor living space. Not knowing if it were human or animal causing the noise, he grabbed his pistol and went to investigate, according to California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) Captain Patrick Foy.
July, 2021, unknown handgun, near Nome, Alaska, Grizzly
Richard Jessee says he was riding his ATV with a trailer attached to it to it in Nome last week when he says the bear ‘came out of nowhere’, picked it up like ‘a toy’ and tossed it
He fired a shot from his pistol to scare the bear then escaped to his cabin where for four days, he cowered while the bear ‘stalked’ him.
July 19, 2021 Chena Hot Springs, AK, Grizzly, .44 magnum
Jul. 21—A man shot a grizzly bear sow Monday morning after it charged him and his son in a remote area off a trail near Chena Hot Springs Road northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska State Troopers said.
The injured bear had not been located by Tuesday afternoon.
The man and son happened upon the sow and cub around 11:12 a.m. while walking in a remote area near Smallwood Trail off Chena Hot Springs Road, troopers wrote in an online statement.
"Once the adult male and the sow made eye contact the bear charged," troopers spokesman Austin McDaniel said.
The man shot the bear with a .44 Magnum revolver, troopers said. The sow was believed to be acting defensively to protect her cub, McDaniel said in an email.
September 23, 2021, Island Park Idaho, Grizzly Bear 10 mm from AmmoLand article on 10mm defenses
Then, on 23 September, a sow grizzly, reportedly with cubs in the area, was shot and killed when it attacked archery hunters near Island Park. The hunters deployed both bear spray and a pistol. The incident is still under investigation, but it appears the bear was shot at very close range. It is elk archery season in Idaho. A source inside the investigation informed this correspondent the pistol was a 10mm. From idaho.gov:
On Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, Idaho Fish and Game received a report of a sow grizzly bear that charged two elk hunters in the Stamp Meadows area near Island Park. As the bear charged, one of the hunters deployed bear spray while the other discharged a firearm at close range, mortally wounding the bear. Neither hunter appeared to be injured during the encounter.
Tyler reported the son remembered seeing the red dot of his pistol sight on the bear for every shot.
The bear continued to advance, slowed down by Tyler and the son’s shots. Tyler advanced to a position a few feet to the side of the son, shooting a couple of more times on the run. The bear was continuing the charge toward them. It had been slowed by multiple hits.
Tyler remembers he and the son shot, and shot, and shot. The pair fired a total of 31 shots. Numerous hours at the range paid off for the son. He finished one magazine and completed a speed reload while Tyler was still shooting.
There are a few cases where a person being attacked by a bear is able to reload. This is the first one I have encountered where the reload was accomplished while the bear was charging.
As the bear got within 10 feet, its speed had slowed considerably. Tyler was concentrating on chest shots. Tyler believes he broke one or both shoulders. The bear veered hard right into a tree. Tyler took a step forward and shot the bear in the side of the skull, through the brain, twice. The Buffalo Bore bullets penetrated through the brain and lodged in the skull on the other side. The distance was five feet. The deadly fight was over.
October 17, 2021, Alaska Baronof Island Grizzly Sow .44 magnum, had tag for bear
By this point, Hammock had made up his mind: He would shoot the bear if she got within 20 feet of him and his kill. He had a valid brown bear tag in his pack, after all.
“This whole time she’s weaving through trees trying to sneak up to me, and I’m standing next to my deer trying to move around and keep something between us while also staying where I can still see her,” Hammock said. “I get this log in between me and her, and she’s coming directly for me. When she was about 20 feet away, I yelled as loud as I could again and threw a rock in her direction. My spot was that log. I was like, if she reaches right here I’m gonna have to shoot her. And so once she put both front feet on that log, I shot her right in the heart.”
Of these 20 cases, 15 involve a single, known, pistol caliber. Here are the current numbers of cases for those calibers:
9mm - seven documented cases, all successful
.38 Special - four documented cases, three successful, one failure
.357 magnum - nine documented cases, eight successful, one failure
.40 S&W caliber - five documented cases, all successful
10mm - six documented cases, all successful
.44 magnum - 37 documented cases, all successful.
.45 long Colt - 2 cases, successful, this includes the .45 Colt/.410 revolver.
Caliber seems far less important than the willingness to use the firearm and kill the bear.
If a reader knows of a case which is not in our records, please send the information to AmmoLand. Most cases are probably not documented.
©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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