KY: Domestic Defense, Man Assaults Girlfriend, Struggle for gun, He is Wounded

Authorities said that 38-year-old Alexander Baldwin of Lexington “became angry” at his 28-year-old girlfriend while inside the store and began to choke her. Once the pair reached the parking lot, Baldwin allegedly threw her to the ground, where she lost consciousness.

Once she regained consciousness, she returned to the car to find Baldwin in the driver’s seat and a .380 pistol lying in the passenger seat, per DPD. Baldwin then allegedly reached for the gun, prompting her to do the same, and a struggle ensued.

According to Danville police, during the struggle, the gun fired twice and hit Baldwin in the hand.

More Here

Handguns in Defense Against Bears by Caliber -.45 acp 9 incidents

Colt 1911A1 .45 acp courtesy Rock Island Auction

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist.  The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We have always asked for examples of failures. Only four failures have been documented. Link to three failures. Link to fourth failure. We appreciate readers who help us document cases.

Here are all the cases which have been documented where .45 acp handguns were fired in defense against bears. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. If more than one handgun of the same caliber was used, the incident is included.  There are 9 incidents with a .45 acp caliber handgun was fired in defense against bears (6 black, 3  brown). The incidents are listed chronologically.

We have found 9 cases where .45 acp pistols were used to defend against bears. 6 against black bears, 3 against brown bears. All were successful.

Spring, before 1934, probably 1920’s Skykomish River, Washington State .45 ACP, Black Bear P. 14-15 “Colt on the Trail, published 1934

Jack Jackson had a holstered Colt .45 when he came face to face with an aggressive, dominant black bear boar, at 10 feet. He shot the boar six times with the Colt .45 ACP, having to reload four of the cartridges because he had fired five shots on the way to his fishing hole. The incident was witnessed by Walter R. Lewin of Seattle, who wrote it up and sent it to Colt.

A Walter R. Lewin of Seattle is recorded as having died in 1950.

1970s Alaska: Skilak Lake, Kenai Peninsula, From More Alaskan Bear
Tales page 271, Maurice Goff and Jack, detailed account without date.

Between bear raids, both men yelled and frantically sought the pistol (having forgotten the shotgun). Finally, Maurice found the pistol, pulled it from its holster and emptied the gun into the charging hulk.

The bear altered its course, and Maurice scrambled for a tree. He begged Jack to do likewise, but Jack refused to do so until he got his hands on the scattergun. Moments later Maurice felt the barrel of the shotgun and discovered Jack was on his way up the foot-thick cottonwood.

The next morning, the approximatedly 800 lb bear was found dead, about 1/2 mile away.

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

There was not much news coverage of my friends incident up on his place in Marias pass area here in Montana. The proper agencies investigated and found him to have defended himself against this 400 lbs sow grizzly with 2 cubs.

Roy was up on the edge of his property tending his fence line, when out of the brush she was a coming straight at him with her ears back. Roy drew and put 3 rounds of 230-gr FMJ in her neck shoulder area, then took off away from the trail about 5 yards. Roy said the bear was still coming at him, and he fired 3 more rounds into her frontal area. And again took off another 5 yards off in another direction. The sow continued to follow coming at him, so Roy fired 3 more rounds into her frontal area and she dropped taking a dirt nap.

Roy called to report the incident, and they came out and brought a metal detector to locate spent extracted shell casings. Roy was found acting within his right to protect himself against the grizzly bear attack. But they said, they wished he would have used Counter Assault Bear Spray. Roy did not have any, so they gave him a can, plus some 12 ga cracker shells, and some other 12 ga shells will rubber bullets in them.

Roy came into town and purchased a Glock 20 10mm auto now. I’m glad Roy is okay.

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

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

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

July 2, 2010, California, Yellow Jacket Campground .45 ktvn.com black bear

Officials say the camper woke up to hear the bear going through an ice chest. He confronted the animal, and it charged and scratched the man’s face.

The man shot the bear, but it got away.

Wildlife rangers tracked the bear down and killed it late Friday.

Department of Fish & Game leading the investigation attack at 2 a.m. From pirate4x4 quote:

The man went out with a gun and tried to shoo the bear away, Macintyre said. The bear charged the man, knocking him to the ground and scratching his face.

The bear left with food, Macintyre said. The man tried to shoo it away again, but the bear charged and knocked him down again.

Macintyre said the man then fired a shot from a .45-caliber pistol, and the animal ran away.

July 7, 2014, Alaska: .45 vs 9-Foot Brown Bear, .45 semi-auto

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

September 6, 2015, Colorado, Winter Park .45 handgun (Mike Porras) cbslocal.com and Mike Porras CO Fish and Game, black bear

According to Mike Porras with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the bear came into the family’s campground while they were present and went after 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.

 

June 25, 2019, Washington State, Petit Lake, .45, Glock 21 black bear

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- On 25 June 2019, a black bear charged a man, chased his dog, then pursued him up a tree until he shot and killed it with a pistol. The attack occurred in Pend Oreille County, Washington State, near Petit lake. The defender fired a shot in an attempt to scare the bear away, but that did not work.

November 7 2019, Gatlinburg Tennessee, .45 ACP, Gregg Sapp, black bear at Motel 6

He turned around, and looked. There, no more than 20 feet away, its feet on a tipped over trash can, was a huge black bear. The bear did not notice him immediately.

But Greg’s dog had come out, and peaked around the corner. It growled and emitted a bark, Grrrr..ru..ruff! The bear jumped over the downed trash can, landed with a Woof!, and charged directly at Greg.

Everything happened extremely fast, but Greg had moved into the psychological state of tachypsychia, where everything seems to slow down. This is a common effect when a human perceives a deadly threat. The effect also distorts distance, and can cause tunnel vision, focused on the threat.

Greg said: Oh f*ck! The .45 Kimber appeared in his hand and he was firing, with the bear taking up his whole field of vision. Greg told me:

“Everything went into like, time lapse.” “It seemed like it took forever!”

In Greg’s heightened state of awareness, he could hear the first three bullets hit.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

Then his ears were ringing. The bear dropped its head down as he fired the last three shots at extremely close range, Greg said it was three feet or less

The bear hit the railing of the walkway two feet from him, turned left, and went down the walkway away from Greg, who had the empty Kimber in his hand.

 

 ©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

CA: Burglary Suspect with Long Record, Shot by Homeowner

LOS ANGELES - A home invasion suspect who remains hospitalized in critical condition after being shot by a Los Angeles homeowner has an extensive criminal record for burglary, robbery, and firearm possession, FOX 11 has learned.

That suspect, identified as 35-year-old Chucks Chuckwudi of Los Angeles, was recently on probation, authorities said. 

(snip)

What they didn't expect was that the 56-year-old homeowner was home and armed.

There was a scuffle and one of the suspects deployed pepper spray. The homeowner armed himself with a handgun and fired several times, hitting one of the suspects.

Chuckwudi was shot in the neck and taken to the hospital in critical condition. 

The second suspect managed to get away with a third suspect who was

More Here

Numbers and Bears: Why Firing the Handgun or Spraying Bear Spray Matters

 

In 2008, bear spray received a large boost with the publication of the paper on the “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray” by Smith and Herrero. The paper considered 83 incidents, of which 72 incidents were scored for effect where bears were sprayed. The eleven other incidents did not involve bears being sprayed. The authors judged bear spray to be 92% effective. 25(35%) of the scored incidents involved aggressive bears. 10 of the aggressive bears charged (14% of the incidents). 21(29%) of the 72 incidents involved park personnel targeting bears. The percent of aggressive bears which were deterred was not mentioned. While 92% seems high, the authors were not content. They created a sound bite, which was intensely magnified by the media. From the Efficacy of Bear Deterrent 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.

Consider the above statement.  The sentence separates carrying bear spray from using bear spray. 175 people were reported as "carrying bear spray". Only 71 bears were sprayed. How many bears were sprayed by multiple people was not reported.  The vast majority of close encounters with bears do not result in humans being injured whether they are unarmed or carry firearms or bear spray.  No one seriously suggests more than 1 or 2 percent of close encounters with bears involve injury to a human. The number is likely much less than 1 percent. Many articles about bear spray jumped to the claim bear spray was 98% effective in deterring bears.

The 98% number is from carrying bear spray. It is not from spraying bears. The article reports there were 72 incidents where people sprayed bears for hazing and/or defensive purposes. Somehow, the number used to calculate the percentages drops to 71. From the abstract:

ABSTRACT We present a comprehensive look at a sample of bear spray incidents that occurred in Alaska, USA, from 1985 to 2006. We analyzed 83 bear spray incidents involving brown bears (Ursus arctos; 61 cases, 74%), black bears (Ursus americanus; 20 cases, 24%), and polar bears (Ursus maritimus; 2 cases, 2%). Of the 72 cases where persons sprayed bears to defend themselves, 50 (69%) involved brown bears, 20 (28%) black bears, and 2 (3%) polar bears. Red pepper spray stopped bears’ undesirable behavior 92% of the time when used on brown bears, 90% for black bears, and 100% for polar bears. Of all persons carrying sprays, 98% were uninjured by bears in close-range encounters. All bear-inflicted injuries (n=3) associated with defensive spraying involved brown bears and were relatively minor (i.e., no hospitalization required). In 7% (5 of 71) of bear spray incidents, wind was reported to have interfered with spray accuracy, although it reached the bear in all cases. In 14% (10 of 71) of bear spray incidents, users reported the spray having had negative side effects upon themselves, ranging from minor irritation (11%, 8 of 71) to near incapacitation (3%, 2 of 71). Bear spray represents an effective alternative to lethal force and should be considered as an option for personal safety for those recreating and working in bear country. ( JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 72(3):000–000;2008)

The paper was a great advertisement for the sale of bear spray. Many media and government agencies have parroted the 98% number. The claim was: science proves bear spray to be 98% effective. The actual number for aggressive bears was far less. Wes Silen, the outdoors writer, interviewed Tom Smith and debunked much of the study. From the article:

I asked Tom Smith if it was valid to conclude that the studied effectiveness of bear spray in brown bear charges is just 33 percent. “That’s what you would conclude from that data,” he says, before going on to point out that the sample size is very small. “Importantly, protracted mauling did not occur,” he says. “Whether that’s due to the spray or simply due to the vagaries of bear attacks is an open question.”

In 2012, Smith and Herrero authored another study. The title was Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska. The study selectively chose incidents of bear and human conflicts, emphasizing those which resulted in human injury.  The authors openly stated their selection bias. The results claimed firearms were only 76% effective for long guns, and 84% effective for handguns, and no statistical difference existed in the rate of injuries inflicted on humans, whether firearms were fired or not.  The selection of incidents involving bears was subjective. The bear spray study used incidents were people actually sprayed bear spray in their calculations of effectiveness. Only 25 of 72 incidents involved aggressive bears. In “Efficacy of Firearms”, all the incidents involved aggressive bears.  In “Efficacy of Firearms”, nearly two thirds of the incidents where firearms were judged to have failed involved circumstances where the firearms were not fired. The reasons given for failure of firearms to stop aggressive bears 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 the firearm was not fired, which was counted as a failure, for 65% of failures. There were 48 recorded failures where the firearm was identified as a long gun or a handgun. If 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%. 93% is not so far off the 96% as shown in the Defense of Life and Property records, or the 98% for handguns seen in this correspondent's own research.

The same reasons for failure to fire would easily apply to use of bear spray. Bear spray has most of the same constraints of a handgun to bring into play. It has a safety. It may be carried in a holster. It has to be directed at the bear.  Handguns have been perfected as instruments to bring into play quickly and intuitively. Bear spray has not. While bear spray may not need to be aimed as precisely, it has a much shorter range, and cannot be reloaded.  Bear spray is very subject to wind. Comparing how mostly curious bears react to being sprayed to aggressive bears who are not shot or shot at, is misleading.  When outdoor writer Wes Siler interviewed author Tom Smith, Smith claimed the studies were never meant to be compared:

 “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.”

Perhaps Author Tom Smith had not read the “Efficacy of Firearms” paper in a long time. The “Efficacy of Firearms” paper was published in 2012. In it, Smith and Herrero make direct comparison of the two studies. Bold added for emphasis. From Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska:

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.

The media immediately magnified the comparison and the claim shooting a firearm made no difference in the probability of being injured during a bear attack. Instead of the 90% claim, many ran with the peculiar 98% claim. No mention was made of the very different selection process in choosing the incidents to include in the two studies. The dubious claim of a requirement for "split second deployment and deadly accuracy" of firearms was not challenged.

On many forums and in government publications, the same false claims are being repeated today.  Cartridge handguns have been available for about 150 years.  Bear spray has been available for about 30 years.  There is one documented case where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear and a human was killed in the bear attack. There are eight documented cases where bear spray was sprayed against bears and someone was killed in the bear attack. In one of those cases (the Pogo mine case), it is unclear if the bear was sprayed before it killed Erin Johnson. Nine humans have been killed in documented bear attacks where bear spray was sprayed.

In our series of articles at AmmoLand, we have collected all documented cases where handguns have been fired in defense against bears. All the cases are referenced and a synopsis of what happened is available to the reader. The success rate for handguns fired in defense against bears is 98%. A total of 190 cases have been documented. In 110 cases (58%), the bear(s) charged  All the data is available to be perused by the readers.

Someday the data used by Smith & Herrero in their papers on bear spray and firearms may become available to the public.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

CA: Long Beach Gunfight, 1 Suspect Killed, Victim Wounded in Hospital, minor wound to second Victim

Homicide detectives are investigating the shooting death of a male adult. 

On July 8, 2024, at approximately 9:03 p.m., officers responded to the 4900 block of Long Beach Boulevard, regarding multiple gunshots heard and at least one person who was shot inside of a local business.   

Upon arrival, officers located a male adult subject suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.  Officers rendered medical aid and attempted life saving measures until being relieved by Long Beach Fire Department personnel who determined the subject deceased at the scene.   

Homicide Detectives responded to the scene to investigate the incident. Through their preliminary investigation, detectives determined two armed suspects entered the bar to assault a patron. The bar patron was also armed, and shots were fired between the parties. The following injuries were reported: 

• Suspect #1 – was struck by gunfire and determined deceased at the scene, who was identified as Arthur Rainey III, a 38-year-old resident of the city of Los Angeles. 

• Suspect #2 – fled the scene before officers' arrival. 

• Bar patron – was struck in lower body and transported to a local hospital.  

• Uninvolved victim – sustained a minor injury to upper body and was treated on scene.  

The investigation to determine the motive for the shooting remains under investigation. 

Detectives believe there were additional witnesses in the area and are encouraging them to come forward.   

 

Link to source

Handguns in Defense Against Bears by Caliber - .40 caliber, .44-40, .45 Colt 13 Incidents

 

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist.  The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We have always asked for examples of failures. Only four failures have been documented. Link to three failures. Link to fourth failure. We appreciate readers who help us document cases.

Here are all the cases which have been documented where .40, .44-40, and .45 Colt (long) caliber handguns were fired in defense against bears. These calibers are fairly close in power, although there is variation as usual. This grouping includes three calibers to include enough incidents to be illuminating.  These cases do not include incidents where handguns were used with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. There are 7 incidents with  .40 caliber handguns (6 black bear, 1 brown), 2 incidents with .44-40  revolvers (1 black, 1 brown), and 4 incidents with .45 Colt (long) caliber revolvers (2 black, 2 brown). All were successful. The incidents are listed by caliber, chronologically within caliber.

We have found seven  cases where .40 caliber pistols were used to defend against bears.  6 against black bears, 1 against a brown bear. All were successful.

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

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

(snip)

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

 September 23, 2008 .40 caliber Black bear bit deputy in Morrow County Ohio, near Gilead. 500 lb Black Bear.

MOUNT GILEAD, Ohio, Sept. 23 (UPI) — Authorities in Morrow County, Ohio, said a deputy shot and killed a 500-pound black bear that had bit him on the leg.

Another mention, Stuart Mattix the deputy.

One of his deputies was bitten on the leg by an escaped bear in September. Deputy Stuart Mattix shot and killed a nearly 500-pound black bear that had been kept at a home on County Road 24, just south of Mount Gilead.

email from Sgt Lance Plough/964 Morrow County Sheriff’s Office

Deputy Mattix is the one who shot the bear while it was biting his leg. He was carrying a Glock 23 .40 caliber with Winchester Ranger hollow points. He shot 9 rounds which were mainly to the bears head and neck. A few of the rounds glanced off the head. This particular incident took place early afternoon.

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

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

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

(snip)

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

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

 

May 28, 2016 Bear Creek Drainage 16 miles N. of Dubois, Wyoming, .40 cal Grizzly bear, AmmoLand article, FOIA page 432

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 yards of the dead bear.

 

May 13, 2017, New Hampshire: Bristol, Officer shoots, kills Aggressive Black Bear with .40 cal Glock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 in Kachemak 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.”

 

August 13, 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 six feet 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.”

We have found two cases, both successful, where a .44-40 was used to defend against a bear, 1 brown, 1 black.

1890’s, Headwaters of the South Fork of the Klamath River near the California/Oregon border, grizzly bear, .44-40 in a Colt Single Action revolver.

The bear invaded the camp and treed the men. Captain S.C. Kyle had a creel full of fish and a .44 Colt (Most likely a .44-40, the second most common Colt revolver caliber of the period) on his hip. He shot the bear, creasing the top of its head from front to back; the bear was able to jump, climb, and grab his boot, then dropped back. He continued to fire at the bear, which eventually wandered off to the side, and expired from shots which reached the lungs.

Colt on the Trail, published 1934, p. 30-32

July 16, 2002, Seneca Lake, San Carlos Indian Reservation, Arizona, .44-40 Ruger Vaquero, black bear.

My name is Rod Black. Last month I was fishing with my brother at Seneca Lake Arizona, on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. Just after midnight on the 16th of July, 2002, a bear wandered into my camp and attacked me while I slept. He clawed my head open, severing a small artery, and bit me on the back before throwing me off my cot onto the ground. I found myself on the dirt, in the dark, with blood gushing and literally squirting from my wounds. I was in a state of absolute panic and horror. I had a Ruger Vaquero by my cot, but in the chaos and confusion I could locate neither the revolver nor my glasses, and could see or hear nothing. I was paralyzed by fear and terrified that the bear would come back from out of the darkness and resume his attack on me at any moment.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was perhaps less than a minute, my brother could see the dark form of the bear moving and began to scream. I realized that we were going to die if I didn’t come to my senses, and I fell to the ground and located my shooter in the dirt. I asked my brother to try to make it to the pickup and turn on the lights. (He could not find the flashlight, as the bear had knocked it on the ground before the attack.) Without my glasses and in such darkness, I was nearly blind.

After repeatedly asking my brother to go, he somehow made it to the truck and turned on the lights. (Later, I realized that by asking my brother to go into the dark to turn on the lights, I might have sent him to his death – that will haunt me forever.) The lights came on and revealed my worst nightmare: Not three to four feet away and looking straight at me was the bear. The bogeyman. The thing that goes bump in the dark. This thing had come to kill me and eat my flesh that night… and I knew it.

When he turned for an instant to look at the light, I wiped the blood from my eyes and fired my first shot from the caliber .44-40 Vaquero. I was painfully aware that if my first round was not a good one, I may not have a chance for another. In all my life, I will never forget the sound of the blast or the acrid smell of the gunpowder. The bear was knocked from his feet and hit the ground hard. He thrashed about while I fired again and again – and cursed him while I did – until I was hammering on empty cartridges.

Article from The Blue Press November 2002 Issue #125.

There have been four cases where .45 Colt (long) revolvers were used against bears, 2 black, 2 brown, all succesful.

20 September, 2005 Washington State Bear Attack .45 Long Cold Revolver (black bear)

In 2005, Travis Newman was archery hunting in Washington state. He had drawn an archery elk tag for the Blue Mountains near Walla Walla. Late in the evening of the 20th of September, he was on a familiar elk trail.

As he approached a corner, he thought: “I don’t remember seeing that stump before.”  The “stump” was close, about 10 yards.  The “stump” transformed itself into a big bear coming at him full bore, furiously chomping its jaws. Travis thought the bear would bluff, took a step back, and speed drew his Taurus Tracker .45 Colt from a cross-body holster made by Uncle Mike. The revolver was loaded with Remington 250-grain jacketed hollow points.

October, 2015, Idaho: Bear Attack on Sleeping Man Stopped with a .45 Colt/.410 revolver, black bear

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

More extensive account in Field and Stream Here. The pistol was a Taurus Judge

I yelled and started reaching for my pistol, but the bear had shoved it out of reach while rummaging around. But then Bobby woke up and saw him standing over me and grabbed his Judge revolver. He lifted the tarp to see and then, sticking the gun right above my head, shot the bear in the face from, like, a foot away.

September 29 2012, .45 Long Colt, Wyoming, Venus Creek, Shoshone National Forest, Grizzly bear, Pages 36 and  1302 FOIA

Two elk archery hunters had processed a bull elk they shot at about 12:30 p.m.  At about 3:30 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 yards 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 around. 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 its 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.

2022 September 27 Bell Flats Alaska .45 Colt from Taurus Judge three hits, killed by neighbor with shotgun

On Sept. 27, 2022, a massive Kodiak bear made a bad decision to break into Aaron Olsen’s house; he lives just five doors down from Heilman in the small Bells Flats community.

 (snip)

Despite Olsen’s immediate decisiveness, he knew he had to take his shot carefully. He had to shoot around the corner of a bedroom where his two youngest children were sleeping. 

As he pulled the trigger to send a .45 Colt round through the bear’s shoulder, his inner voice reminded him, “Don’t hit the kids.” 

“When I pulled the trigger, I couldn’t see its head. I hope the first shot hit him in the shoulder,” Olsen said. 

Whether from pain or fear, the bear managed to turn its mammoth body around inside the confines of the home’s tiny hallway, likely in an attempt to get back out the way he’d come in. Olsen followed the bear through his house. 

“I was pulling the trigger while shouting ‘Get out of my house!’ along with a lot of logger and fisherman words that I’ve learned over the years,” he said. “There was not an ounce of fear in me in that moment. It was all business. It was just rage, the maddest I have ever been. I could not believe this thing was in my house. I was furious.”

 

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

TN: Memphis Attempted Carjacking results in Gunfight

Memphis Police said it all started after the man went inside the BP gas station near East Shelby Drive and Hickory Hill Road to get some food. As he walked back to his Dodge Charger, an armed suspect pointed a gun at him and said, "Give me your keys and car," police said.

That was when the car owner pulled out his own firearm from his hip and fired up to six shots at the suspect, police said. The man told investigators that he believes he shot the suspect in the face and that the suspect fired as many as 25 shots at him.

 The owner of the Charger then got back in his car and left, police said.

MPD said the car owner later flagged down an officer after getting into a crash. He was found with a gunshot wound to his behind and was taken to a hospital with non-critical injuries, police said.

More Here

TN: Knoxville Domestic Defense? Man Shot at Linden Avenue Home

Officers arrived on scene, where an adult man had been shot. Responding Knoxville Fire Department personnel attempted life-saving care, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Based on the investigation being led by KPD Homicide Unit detectives, it is believed that the victim was engaged in a domestic dispute with family members when he pulled out a gun. The victim was then shot by an individual inside the home, who remained on scene. There were no other injuries reported.

More here

Florida's Proposed Protection of Hunting and Fishing Amendment

The Florida State Legislature has proposed a Right to Hunt and Fish amendment to the Florida State Constitution. The Amendment will appear on the November 5, 2024 election ballot as Amendment 2. The amendment will require a supermajority of 60% of the vote to approve the measure. The amendment reads as follows:

SECTION 28.

Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife.—Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, shall be preserved forever as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. This section does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section 9 of Article IV.

The first state to protect hunting and fishing in its constitution was Vermont, in 1777. Here is Vermont's version:

§ 67. [Hunting; fowling and fishing]

The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty in seasonable times, to hunt and fowl on the lands they hold, and on other lands not inclosed, and in like manner to fish in all boatable and other waters (not private property) under proper regulations, to be made and provided by the General Assembly.

The limitations on government provided by the federal and state constitutions, as well as the abundance of fish and game, showed the amendment in Vermont was ahead of its time.

After World War II,  increasing urbanization and Disneyfication of animals in the public mind lead to a rise in attitudes against hunting and fishing. 22 more states codified protections of the right to hunt and fish into their state constitutions, beginning with Alabama in 1996.

The 23 states which have such amendments are:  Alabama - 1996, Arkansas - 2010, Georgia - 2006, Idaho - 2012, Indiana - 2016, Kansas - 2016, Kentucky - 2016, Louisiana - 2004, Mississippi - 2014, Minnesota - 1998, Montana - 2004, Nebraska - 2012, North Carolina - 2018, North Dakota - 2000, Oklahoma - 2008, South Carolina - 2010, Tennessee - 2010, Texas - 2015, Vermont - 1777, Utah - 2020, Virginia - 2000, Wisconsin - 2003, and Wyoming - 2012.

Missouri is considering such an amendment.

Rhode Island protects the right to fish, with an amendment passed in 1844. California has a fishing only amendment, passed in 1910.

There is serious opposition to the Florida amendment, including a number of "animal rights" type groups. They are listed at the Ballotpedia page about the amendment. The primary opposition is NoTo2.org.

Proponents of the amendment include conservationists and sportsmans' groups. They are also listed on the Ballotpedia page. The primary proponent is listed as Yes on 2.

Analysis: The right to hunt and fish amendments are another facet of the push back against unlimited government power. The Vermont amendment in 1777 was in direct opposition to royal power, where game was considered the property of the King and/or nobles. Common people only hunted or fished by poaching. In the new world, everyone hunted and fished. Game was abundant. No one wanted to allow a king to control their right to hunt and fish. These amendments are a facet of the conflict between people in rural areas and people in urban centers.

After 1900, game and fish were not as abundant as they used to be. Conservationists, such as President Theodore Roosevelt, pushed for conservation of wild animals and fish. Others went beyond the concept of wise conservation of resources to the idea animals should be treated as people.

Today, there are numerous organizations which raise millions of dollars by appealing to emotion. The ideology seems to be  animals should never be killed, at least not by humans. The proponents don't seem to be bothered by animals killing one another. The greatest number of bears which are killed are cubs killed and eaten by bigger bears. There was opposition to a mild restoration of the right of humans to protect themselves and their property, where less than a fifty  bears are likely to be killed in such circumstances in a year. The opposition ignored the hundreds of bears killed by other bears. It is typical such opposition comes from people in urban centers who do not live with the consequences of the laws they push, which mostly affect people in rural areas.

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

 

 

 

FL: Tampa Home Intruder Shot, Killed

Around 4:19 a.m., police say they went to a home in the 1300 block of South Bermuda Blvd. When they arrived, a man at the home said someone broke in through a window, according to TPD.

The man told police that he shot the intruder.

 According to investigators, officers found a man in his early 40s suffering from a gunshot wound. Officials say he was pronounced dead.

More Here

WV: Fight in Home of David Hodge results in Charles Speer Shot, Killed

Further investigation into the shooting revealed that Speer allegedly went to the home of David Hodge, 50, of Lenore, WV. Once there, a fight began between the two men. Sometime during the fight, David Hodge reportedly shot Speer multiple times.

Charles Speer was taken to Williamson ARH where he was pronounced dead. His body was taken to Frankfort, Kentucky for an autopsy.

After discussions between investigators and the Mingo County Prosecutor, no charges have been filed.

More Here

OK: Domestic Defense, Estranged Husband Threatens Wife, is Shot

A man was shot at a gas station after he confronted his estranged wife with a gun and was shot by one of her friends, Tulsa Police said.

The shooting happened at a QuikTrip near 11th and Sheridan around 7 p.m. Monday night.

Someone with the estranged wife's group of friends pulled a gun and asked her husband to step back and put his gun down, investigators said.

Witnesses said he instead pointed the weapon at that friend, and he was then shot twice.

More Here

TX: San Antonio Homeowner Shoots Intruder who Lunged at Him

The homeowner later heard noises in the backyard and upon investigation, encountered the same man. Police say the homeowner then retrieved a shotgun and ordered the man to leave the property. Investigators reported that the man lunged at the homeowner and his wife, prompting the homeowner to fire one shot, striking the man in the stomach.

Police and medical personnel arrived on the scene and attempted life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful. The man, believed to be around 47 years old, was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

More Here

WV: Godmother Evicted after Defensive Gun Fight

Addie knew her neighbor was getting in her car to go out to the store.  She heard a sound that made her think the shooter’s clip was empty.

“I heard something drop, so I got up immediately and returned fire,” she said.

Her intention was to get the shooter to leave. “As he seen me get to my neighbor’s car to try to get her out, he immediately repeated shooting again.”  She and the others ran back inside the building until they knew the shooter was gone.  That’s when they were able to get the neighbor, who was not injured, out of her car, which had been hit.

“When I got up to return fire, the young man never budged.  He stood there like he had the intent to really hurt someone,” she said.  For her part, she said she aimed to warn him so he would leave.  She was not shooting to kill the man.  “All I was trying to do was protect.”

Eviction notice

Addie said this week, she had a yellow envelope waiting for her when she got home.  It was an eviction notice.  When she went to her rental office to talk about it, she was told that the folks there agreed that she didn’t break any laws.  She said surveillance video from the incident was reviewed by law enforcement and she fully cooperated with investigators, staying behind to answer questions.

In an interview earlier this week, Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department Chief Administrative Officer Eric Burnett told the Panhandle News Network Addie’s actions likely prevented injury, loss of life or further damage.

More Here

Handguns in Defense Against Bears by Caliber - .357 Magnum (14 incidents)

S&W  Model 66 .357 Magnum courtesy of Rock Island Auction

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist.  The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We have always asked for examples of failures. Only four failures have been documented. Link to three failures. Link to fourth failure. We appreciate readers who help us document cases.

Here are all the cases which have been documented where .357 Magnum  caliber revolvers were fired in defense against bears. These cases do not include incidents where handguns were use with other lethal means, or a mix of handgun calibers were used. If more than one handgun of the same caliber was used, the incident is included.  There are 14 incidents with a .357 caliber revolver (3 black, 10  brown, 1 polar bear), 1 incident was a failure with a brown bear. 1 incident was indeterminate. The incidents are listed chronologically.

We have found 14 cases where .357 magnum revolvers were used to defend against bears. 12 were successful, one was unsuccessful against a brown bear, one was indeterminate.

September of 1956 or 1957 Highland Valley, Geologist Alex Burton, Highland Valley, British Columbia, .357magnum Colt revolver, Black Bear.

I interviewed Alex Burton. The details of his cases are at the link on Ammoland.

When Alex arrived at the scene, the Cook had gone back to the dump. Alex had to retrieve his 357 Colt revolver, unlock the box it was in, retrieve ammunition from another box, and load it. While he was doing this, the Cook came running back from the dump, with the bear chasing him. Alex shot the bear from about 100 feet away. The bear ran into the dense woods. Alex was obligated to follow it up, and, fortunately, found it dead a short ways into the woods.

Spring, 1961, Washington State, Grays Harbor County, .357 magnum, black bear, From The Education of a Bear Hunter by Ralph Flowers p. 115,116

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.

 

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.

Spring of 1977, Byers Lake Campground milepost 147 of Parks Highway, Alaska, grizzly bear, .357 magnum.  Alaskan Bear Tales, Larry Kanuit, p. 156. 

Lori Meade was camping with her parents. She and her sister were in a tent and her parents were in a camper. Here father's .357 revolver was in the cab of the pickup. A grizzly bear came into camp, knocked over trash cans and swatted the cooler with about 80 lbs of meat in it. The cooler landed a few feet from the tent. Her father tried to scare the bear off, but it calmly continued to eat
from the cooler. Her father then accessed his .357 magnum. From Lori:

"Dad then got his .357 and fired three rounds into the air. The bear dropped the package of sausage and looked at Dad. He shot another round, and the bear reared."

Dad then started shouting: "Don't say anything! Go out the back of the tent, fast! We have a bear!

"Being awakened at 5:30 a.m. anytime is a shocker, but with gunfire and a bear in camp!"

"Well, Lynn couldn't get out of her sleeping bag, so she took it with her - hippity hop, hippity hop. Instead of going out the back of the tent, which Lynn had to crawl under, I went out the front. Off to my right, about three feet, was the bear. Boy, did I ever boogie to the pickup!"

"The bear stood their looking at Dad straight in the eyes, not moving. So Dad had one heck of a decision - He knew he only had one round left.  He was close enough he could kill the bear if he got the bear either between the eyes or in the throat. He wasn't that sure of himself so he started walking toward the bear and shot his last shot i the air. Finally the bear lumbered for the trees. He picked up a steak on his way out!"

Lori's father only had five rounds in his .357 revolver.

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 – Montana Grizzly bear .357 mag, 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.

September 15 1985, near Healy, Alaska Ruger single-action .357 magnum, grizzly, Ben Moore: Bear Attacks of the Century: True Stories of Courage and Survival P. 23-24

The shots were slightly delayed because the revolver was a single action

The bear charged him. His first shot was from about 5 feet, into the chest. The bear grabbed him by the leg and threw him, then picked him up again. Ben missed a shot, the managed to get a shot into the bear’s stomach. The bear dropped him, then grabbed him by the head, shook him, and dropped him again. He shoved the pistol and both hands into the bears mouth, and fired.

The bear moved back, shook its head, took a swipe at Ben with its paw, leaving a sliver of claw through Ben’s thumb.

Then it walked off. The attack was finished.

Ben required reconstructive surgery for his face, but fully recovered.

August 1986, Tsiu River south of Cordova, Alaska, .357 magnum revolvers, grizzly bear

A group of seven people on a fishing trip, with a guide and a cook, had to deal with an increasingly aggressive grizzly over several days. The group included Bob and Marietta Herron and their friend, Bill. They kept a watch at night, and repeatedly drove off the bear with warning shots. About 1 am on the fourth day, the bear ignored warning shots and came within 15 yards of the group. During more warning shots, the guide’s .30-06 rifle misfired, and one member fired at the bear, with his .357. The bear moved off. after the sun came up, the group found the bear, dead, with two .357 slugs in it. Page 312-313 Safe with Bears.

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

Pictures at Field and Stream Article here

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

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

June or July, 1991, Ontario, Canada, Garden Lake, black bear, .357 magnum (Colt Python) Mentioned in Comments on Ammoland.

I interviewed George Scott in 2019.

Government geologist George Scott had an ATC (Authority to Carry) while in the performance of official duties. A black bear raided coolers and ate steaks and pork chops, punctured all coke cans. The next morning, it was foggy and Scott went out fishing, leaving his Colt Python Stainless steel revolver in the holster, loaded, in the cabin. He heard gunshots and returned to the cabin. His partner had fired at the bear, but had missed. The next morning, approached the outhouse with toilet paper in one hand and the Python in the other. The bear came out from behind the outhouse when he was 20 feet away. He fired one shot, and the bear ran 40 feet and expired.

July, 1992, near the town of Central, Alaska, Grizzly, .357 revolver.

A 600 lb grizzly breaks into a mining claim trailer. 14 year old Clint Reynolds shoots the bear seven times with a .357 revolver. The bear leaves the trailer via a window. There were three shots to the chest of the bear with the .357. The bear died outside the trailer. Anchorage Daily News, as reported by Craig Medred, J-8, 1992 as reported in Safe with Bears, page 314.

 

February 27, 1993 – Barents Sea, Norway FOIA Polar Bears Rubber bullet from a 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.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 26, 2014, Montana: Glacier National Park: Bear first sprayed, then shot with a .357, grizzly bear

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

 

©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

 

NY: Domestic Defense, Father Shoots Son who Threatened Him

Police say, there is an active order of protection in effect protecting Earl Chase from his son. Earl Chase reportedly armed himself with a shotgun while his son was attempting to make entry to the residence, ultimately discharging "a round containing bird shot at his son" inside the residence after his son "refused to leave and began approaching Earl Chase and his wife while making threats to kill them."

The round struck Ethan Chase in his left shoulder, according to police. He was arrested and was transported to Albany Medical Center for evaluation and treatment where he is currently in stable condition. The investigation is ongoing at this time, police say.

More Here

MO: Boyfreind Shoots, Kills Woman who shot his Girlfriend

A preliminary investigation determined that a 23-year-old woman was in an altercation with a 26-year-old woman. At some point, the older woman pulled a gun from her vehicle and shot the other woman in the leg.

After that, the younger woman’s boyfriend allegedly drew his own weapon and shot the 26-year-old woman, who died a short time later.

Investigators say the 28-year-old boyfriend is an officer for the St. Louis Airport Police Department who was off-duty. Police say he was not injured in the situation and is cooperating with authorities on information.

More Here

Rahimi Decision: The Clarence Thomas Dissent

 

Justice Clarence Thomas has written a wonderful dissent in the Rahimi case, released on June 21, 2024, almost exactly two years after the clear and well written Bruen opinion.

The Rahimi opinion has been released by the Supreme Court. It is an eight to one decision with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting. In spite of the terrible facts and unsympathetic defendant in the case, Rahimi was not a significant win for those who want the American population disarmed. It was a very narrow decision, based on the narrow facts of the case, so the opinion while not wonderful, is not as damaging as some think. The Supreme Court opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts, is narrow, as applied to the Rahimi case. It is extremely limited.  From the opinion, page 1:

Held: When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment. Pp. 5–17.

(a) Since the Founding, the Nation’s firearm laws have included regulations to stop individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms. As applied to the facts here, Section 922(g)(8) fits within this tradition.

Justice Clarence Thomas may be the most well reasoned and disciplined Justice on the Supreme Court. In his dissenting opinion on Rahimi, Thomas shows the weakness in the majority opinion. His dissent gives Constitutionalists and Originalists a roadmap of how to argue decisions on other cases going forward, including future challenges to the ban on guns coming from domestic violence restraining orders, indeed from the entire Lautenberg Amendment disaster.

Justice Thomas makes clear there is no historical tradition of firearms regulation is consistent with U. S. C. §922(g)(8). From the Dissent, page 1: 

A firearm regulation that falls within the Second Amendment’s plain text is unconstitutional unless it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue, 18U. S. C. §922(g)(8).

Justice Thomas shows how  18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8) indiscriminately bans numerous individuals from possessing firearms, without due process. From the Dissent:

In addition, §922(g)(8) strips an individual of his ability to possess firearms and ammunition without any due process.1

Justice Thomas shows the various historical statutes used in the majority opinion do not fit 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8), starting on page 7 of the Dissent:

The Government does not offer a single historical regulation that is relevantly similar to §922(g)(8). As the Court has explained, the “central considerations” when comparing modern and historical regulations are whether the regulations “impose a comparable burden” that is “comparably justified.” Id., at 29. The Government offers only two categories of evidence that are even within the ballpark of §922(g)(8)’s burden and justification: English laws disarming persons “dangerous” to the peace of the kingdom, and commentary discussing peaceable citizens bearing arms. Neither category ultimately does the job.

Justice Thomas explains how the majority opinion threatens the Second Amendment on page 31 of the Dissent:

The Court rightly rejects the Government’s approach by concluding that any modern regulation must be justified by specific historical regulations. See ante, at 10–15. But, the Court should remain wary of any theory in the future that would exchange the Second Amendment’s boundary line—“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”—for vague (and dubious) principles with contours defined by whoever happens to be in power.

On the same page, Justice Thomas explains why the Rahimi case is not about Rahimi as an individual, but about protecting Second Amendment rights from encroachment. He notes Rahimi could have been effectively disarmed using several other processes, particularly criminal statutes. From the Dissent:

 This case is not about whether States can disarm people who threaten others. States have a ready mechanism for disarming anyone who uses a firearm to threaten physical violence: criminal prosecution. Most States, includingTexas, classify aggravated assault as a felony, punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§22.02(b), 12.33 (West 2019 and Supp. 2023). Assuming C. M.’s allegations could be proved, Texas could have convicted and imprisoned Rahimi for every one of his alleged acts. Thus, the question before us is not whether Rahimi and others like him can be disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment. Instead, the question is whether the Government can strip the Second Amendment right of any-one subject to a protective order—even if he has never been accused or convicted of a crime.

Justice Thomas' arguments in the dissent are persuasive. Unfortunately, eight other Justices found the facts of the particular Rahimi case to be more persuasive of the necessity of temporarily disarming Rahimi. Hard cases make bad law, as they say. To mitigate the damage which Justice Thomas so eloquently warns of, the majority opinion is severely limited. Here are the limits put in place on the applicability of the Rahimi opinion, going forward:

1. The opinion is limited as applied to the Rahimi case, and no others.

2. The Opinion is limited to determining if all cases, in all instances under 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8) are always unconstitutional. The Opinion does not rule out the possibility major portions of 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8) are unconstitutional, and may be found to be so in future cases.

3. The Opinion only applies to Section 922(g)(8)(C)(i). It does not apply to the rest of the  18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8), which allows for constitutional challenges to those areas.

4. The Opinion keeps the Bruen test in place as the means of judging Second Amendment cases, including future challenges to other parts of 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8).

5. The Opinion did not deal with due process issues.  Those are left for future decisions. Due process was acknowledged to be important, but not in the Rahimi case. Rahimi did not contest the facts in the restraining order, or contest the restraining order.

Analysis: While this correspondent would have preferred Justice Thomas' dissent to be the majority opinion, it was not to be. The majority opinion is not an unmitigated disaster for Constitutionalists and Originalists.  It upholds Bruen and leaves the door open for several pending cases to clarify and restore more rights protected by the Second Amendment where states are defying the Supreme Court ruling in Bruen. This correspondent believes Mark Smith makes a compelling case Rahimi is a win for the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights.

 

 ©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch