Free Republic

A Massachusetts man is facing charges of illegal possession of a firearm and failing to secure a weapon after using a shotgun to kill a bear that began chasing him in his own backyard while he was stocking his bird feeders. The man in question is 76 year old Richard Ahlstrand of Auburn Massachusetts and the bear was 7 feet tall and pushing 400 pounds. But despite the reasonable fear that a 76 year old man might feel in such a situation, the local prosecutors have gone after Mr. Ahlstrand with a vengeance. When he went out that afternoon, he...

Richard Ahlstrand told WBZ-TV he was stocking his bird feeder Friday night when a bear about seven feet tall and 300-to-400 pounds started chasing him. That’s when he turned his shotgun on the bear. “I didn’t have time to aim through the sights, but I aimed in the direction of the head on this thing and I pulled the trigger before it got to me. It just dropped,” he said. Ahlstrand said he was carrying the shotgun Friday night because he thought he saw the bear in his yard Thursday. “If that ever jumped on me, I wouldn’t even be...