As an ardent hunter born in Alaska, I sat up straight in reading the headline in last week’s paper about the police chief trying to take out a brown bear because it got into the tempting fragrance of trash he placed outside his home.
Would a little old lady upon seeing a bear eating her apples off the tree try to shoot to kill with her BB gun? That’s basically what a .357 handgun, especially with hollow points, is in this circumstance to a large-boned brown bear, which is basically a furred-up version of the Terminator. What is required as minimal brown bear medicine is a 12 gauge with slugs or larger. This is very basic knowledge in Alaska.
The public service credo underscores: “Don’t shoot to kill unless in immediate defense of life and property!”
Did this scenario meet that DLP criteria? Certainly does not sound like it did.
Where will the needle peg the public’s confidence to call authorities next time a brownie clearly has its ears flattened back in a full on charge if blatant blunders embarrassingly are seen?
This is Haines, Alaska, not Des Moines, Iowa.
Patrick McMullin