Bears have killed nine times as many people when bear spray is sprayed than when handguns are fired in defense against bears. Fatal bear attacks are rare and make the news. Powerful cartridge handguns became popular and relatively easily available about 1873. Bear spray became available in 1985. The ability to learn about and report fatal bear attacks has expanded enormously since 1960.
Data which are nearly impossible to obtain are:
- How many times are bears sprayed with bear spray?
- How many times are handguns fired in defense against bears?
- How many times are firearms generally fired in defense against bears?
- What percentage of human/bear conflicts involve serious danger to humans?
Collections of incidents involving bear spray and/or firearms are inherently subject to selection bias and confirmation bias. Some of this bias may be subconscious rather than intentional. Selection bias is built into the ability to gather data about the subject. If no human is injured, there is little incentive to report successful defensive actions.
If a bear is sprayed and runs off, there is little to report and little incentive to report it.
If a bear is shot at and runs off, there is little to report and not much incentive to report it.
If a bear is shot and killed in defense, where legal hunting is allowed, it is often recorded as a hunting kill rather than a defense against bears.
Data on fatal bear attacks overcomes some of these issues. The bear attack was serious, because the person was killed. Reporting of fatal bear attacks is more reliable than for any lesser level of conflict. Fatal bear attacks tend to be investigated, and investigative reports may contain higher levels of information.
Most fatal bear attacks involve people who are not armed or who do not use what arms they have.
Over the last several years, this correspondent and colleagues have been collecting all cases which can be documented where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear or bears. The total number of cases number over 170, from 1890 to 2023. All documented cases are included to avoid selection bias. Only one case is known where a human was killed. This is the incident in 1995 in the Svalbard Archipelago. The defenders fired a .22 rimfire handgun in defense against a polar bear. One person was killed and eaten. Bear spray is not allowed as a defense against bears in Svalbard. Pistols of less than .44 Caliber are not accepted as sufficient for bear protection in Svalbard.
Nine people are documented to have been killed in incidents where bear spray was sprayed in defense against bears. Those incidents occurred from 2003 to 2023. Eight of the nine fatalities occurred in North America, where bear spray is heavily promoted, in the eight years from 2017 to 2023. The nine fatalities are:
2003: Vitaly Nikolayenko was killed and eaten in Russia. He was a famous bear researcher.
2017: Erin Johnson was killed near the Pogo Mine in Alaska
2018: Mark Uptain was killed in Wyoming
2020: Daniel Schilling was killed in Alaska
2020: Stephanie Blaise was killed in Saskatchewan
2021: Carl Mock was killed near Yellowstone Park in Montana
2021: Leah Lokan was killed in Montana
2023: Doug Inglise and Jenny Gusse and their dog were killed in Alberta
As agencies and institutions have promoted the use of bear spray as a superior deterrent compared to handguns, and firearms in particular, more bear attack fatalities have occurred with the use of bear spray. Seven of the fatal attacks appear to have been predatory attacks. The two exceptions are: Mark Uptain was a guide helping to process an elk when he was attacked; Carl Mock was attacked near a moose carcass on the border of Yellowstone Park.
As the use of bear spray has ramped up and been promoted in North America, the percent of people killed in incidents where bear spray was used as a defense has been remarkable. Since 2016, eight of 22 people killed by bears were killed in incidents where bear spray was used as a defense. The numbers are very small. Eight incidents of 22 over eight years is 36%. In the same eight years 45 cases were documented where people fired pistols in defense against bears, and there were no human fatalities.
It is impossible to know how many times pistols were fired in defense against bears in the eight years; or to know how many times bear spray was sprayed against bears as a defense during the same period.
The claim of bear spray as superior to handguns for defense against bears is not supported by the data on fatal bear attacks.
©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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