[pct-l] The weapons question

[Ken Murray]

Ned, you ask a legitimate question.  However, you choose to ignore a rather obvious truth.

People who are gun-centric do NOT think of it as a last resort, they think of it as a first resort.
I've been around many gun owners, I've been a gun owner, I've taught law enforcement officers.

In your two stories of bear encounters, it is absolutely crystal clear, that if you'd had a gun, you'd have been killing bears.  Note:  you didn't kill a bear, you were not attacked, the outcome was appropriate.

Killing a bear, because a bear is attempting to take your pack (which probably means incorrectly stored food is present) is NOT appropriate.  You may find it inconvenient that you had your pack ripped to shreds......tough!  Giving you the means to kill the bear, to "protect" your trip timeline or itinerary, to "protect" your "stuff", when it is absolutely not needed, is way over the top.  In reality, in most situations, what would happen would be that the gun would be used to exact revenge upon the dumb beast for having the gall to touch the person's property.  Admit it, you know that is often true.

You *know* that pepper spray is effective in all sorts of tests, in driving off black bears.  What is the use of the gun?  Revenge killing.  The pleasure of watching the death.
Virtually all *very rare* physical encounters with black bears in Yosemite, Bear Central, in which a bear injures a backpacker, is when a person is attempting to retrieve something that a bear has taken and now "owns". 

You go into great detail about getting disarticulated by wildlife.  That is simply fear-mongering.  Your "examples" consist of bizarre fantasies, that have little to do with what happens out on the trail.  Let's see you cite examples, that can be independently verified, of where guns saved lives in encounters with wildlife in Ca.  There have been 12 documented attacks by black bears in Ca in the last 29 years.  There have been no recorded fatalities in Ca in the last 100 years.

You are FAR more likely to be killed by a deer, than by a bear.  Good luck, Bambi.