The dead man was asleep when attacked, so the question is, were you asleep when any of those bears woke you up and you shot them? Since his fiancée heard nothing, the bear must have been upon him before he could even yell.
It is one thing to be awake and aware, and able to aim your gun, it is quite another to waken with a bear six inches from your face or, biting your throat. I imagine that even finding your gun could be a challenge at that point.
The point is not whether handguns are a good thing or bad but if the dead man could have even got off a shot, if he had a handgun. THAT is highly unlikely.
That is why I included the incident from Arizona, where the man was sleeping, woke with his head in a bear’s mouth, drew his revolver and killed the bear.
I think that Ward’s mistake was sleeping out by the fire, instead of inside the motorhome.
But, I was not there. When I was on a hunting trip to Alaska, I kept a .357 on a lanyard attached to my wrist, while I was sleeping, in a tent.
Given the situation, where Ward very likely was bit before he woke up, I doubt that a bear banger, or bear spray, would have done much good, either.
Not unlikely at it has been done before.
SENECA LAKE, Ariz. — A man out camping with his brother woke up with one heck of a headache, only to discover that a bear was biting him in the head.
Thanks to his quick reactions — and to the handgun he was carrying — Rodney Black, 51, will be OK
Black and his brother were sleeping at their campsite at Seneca Lake, Ariz., when Black said he felt an intense pain in his head. He said the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, blood was gushing everywhere and he couldn’t see a thing.
His said his brother screamed out “Bear!” and he managed to get out his handgun and shoot the animal dead.
“I don’t know where I hit him,” Black told the Arizona Republic. “He went down on the first shot and I emptied my revolver into him. I knew that I needed to make that first shot, or I was in more trouble.
Being a former Canadian how much handgun experience do you have many people have save themselves from bear attacks with a handguns .
It a myth promoted by the anti’s that handguns are not effective they have proven many times to be effective.