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Bears and little guns
Posted by Ed M on Jun 24 2005
Murphy, What I would like to hear about are the situations where not being proficient with a handgun has resulted in death by bear attack. I am truly interested if there are cases. I may just not be aware of them. Seems like all the cases that I have heard about where a handgun was used to defend oneself were ultimately successful in saving the life.
If what you say is true about no cognition then no one would ever survive a bear attack because of their own resources. I know this is dead wrong! It happens every year where people have the wits about them to do what is right and survive attacks.
It may be in assessing that it will not be a fatal attack and the best course is to not fight back and just play dead or it may be in assessing that it may be fatal and then fighting with anything you got. This cognitive effort happens whether you have a gun or not. Not a whole lot different than the response of a woman during a rape, some say they figure it felt better to fight because they were gonna die anyway, others felt it was better to go along than risk a fight. Untrained people still have cognitive responses in emergency situations.
As to shooting proficiency, I know of at least a few circumstances where unskilled use of a gun has both warded off attacks and saved lives. The mere blast of a gun alone will deter some bear even if the shot was meant to hit, a non lethal hit will deter some others. There are cases where close-in shooting just trying to fill'em with lead has saved lives. Many, probably most cases the bear wasn't killed with a single nervous system shot, they just stagger off dying nearby or not found at all. But yet despite the severity of the situation the people were cognitive enough to use the gun effectively.
A handgun is a weapon, better to have some weapon than none. This is very different from a domestic situation where an innocent person might be hurt in the melee. Anyway, not aware of any case where someone fatally shot themselves or someone else while defending against a bear. Don't think this would be an issue unless you were trying to get the bear off a friend.
People have saved their lives against bears with knives, sticks, anything they could get a hold of and I am sure they were quite unskilled in the defensive use of them before the attack. In the case of the pastor in my other post he figures his life was saved by putting the rifle barrel crossways in the bears mouth, it only bit off his scalp, 1 eye, and 1 ear not being able to completely close its mouth around his head because of the steel wedged against the back teeth.
The more familiar you are with the gun the better, but you don't need to be a skilled marksmen to effectively use a handgun when a bear is chewing on you as the successful accounts have proven.
An account published recently is with the biologist that was taken down by a grizzly. I think he had a 44. He was knocked down and the 44 flew out of the holster. Throughout the attack he wanted to reach the gun but was unsuccessful. He survived the mauling by lying still until it was over although he was aware enough of the value of the handgun while it was happening.
If ya gott'em, smok'em!
How about a practical but hypothetical situation.
Number 1: You are on a camping trip. Mom says I have to go to the bathroom can I have the gun (meaning the one on your hip). I say yes but be careful there is one under the hammer.
Number 2: (pun intended) You are on a camping trip. Mom says I have to go to the bathroom can I have the gun (meaning the one on your hip). I say no, you'll just have to take the risk because you don't shoot it well enough.
It just isn't real world to suggest that you should not carry a handgun into the Alaska bush because you can't hit a tiny bouncing ball or a watermelon at 2 paces.
Previous: Handguns and Bears.... Murphy Jun 24 2005
Next: Here is your answer Ed M, on "bears and little g Ray Jun 27 2005
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