Posted on 03/17/2026 6:02:35 AM PDT by marktwain
Public domain map showing area of the two bear attacks.
On February 15, 2026, a Slovenian father and son used a handgun or handguns to defend against an attacking European brown bear, ursus arctos. From bernama.com:
Environment state secretary Filip Kuffa said the father and son had been inspecting timber in a mountain forest with a hunting dog when the bear attacked unexpectedly.
According to Mr Kuffa, the father fired several shots from his pistol in self-defence, but the bear knocked him to the ground and bit him repeatedly.
His son then shot and killed the animal with a handgun.
The incident has been verified by multiple accounts from Slovakian sources. It is unclear whether there was one or two handguns or what caliber they were. The attack happened very fast, with little or no warning. The bear grabbed the father and they tumbled down a steep slope. The son had to be sure he would not shoot the father who was underneath the bear. The father was 57 years old. The attack took place near Ružomberok, in the Zilina province in north central Slovakia.
Defense against bears with handguns is unusual in Europe because of highly restrictive firearms laws. However, 2% of adults in Slovakia have a permit for concealed carry of handguns. This is a very large number for Europe. 8.2% of adults in the United States have concealed carry permits. There are 29 of 50 states in which no permit is required to carry a handgun, concealed or openly. There are nine states in which it is difficult to obtain a permit to carry. For example, in California, only about .6% of adults have a permit to carry.
While researching the most recent defensive firing of a handgun against a bear in Slovakia, a previous incident was uncovered. The incident occurred near Sučany, about 30 miles to the east of Ružomberok. From praguemonitor.com:
Over the weekend, a man walking his dog near the village of Sučany, close to Martin in northwestern Slovakia, was attacked by an 18-year-old female bear. In an act of self-defense, the man shot the bear with a legally held weapon. TA3 television reported that even warning shots fired into the air were ineffective in deterring the bear, which was stopped by a fatal shot just a meter away from the man. The police are currently investigating the incident.
The weekend referred to would have been July 8-9, 2023. Spiegel is quoted as saying 12 shots were fired, two as warning shots, with the final fatal shot fired from 1 meter away. As quoted from Spiegel:
Jul 15, 2023 - Summary by Spiegel First he shot twice in the air, then ten times at the animal — the last bullet was fatal: In Slovakia, a man repelled a bear attack with a pistol.
In the most recent case, the bear was also a female, with very young cubs in a den. Bear attacks in Slovenia have resulted in a culling of bears. A recent academic paper showed Slovenia as suffering from the highest density of human-bear conflicts. Local bear density was found to be one of the most important factors. The population of bears in Slovenia is estimated at 1,300, according to the BBC. In 2004, the Slovenian bears were protected, and no longer listed as a game species. In 2010 the bear population was estimated at 500, increasing at about 20% per year. A cull of 350 bears out of a population of 1,300 would stabilize the population of bears.
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
The pistol was probably a .380 CZ Model 82, lots of these guns are in circulation in the former USSR states.
Slovenia is not Slovakia.
Thank you for the correction.
I much appreciate it.
To be clear to everyone: This happened in Slovakia. Slovenia was not involved. The father and son were Slovakians, not Slovenians.
I don't know the Slovak word for bear but it is probably something similar to the Russian word medved', literally "the honey eater." Apparently the ancient Slavs thought it was bad luck to call a bear by its actual name so they called it a honey eater instead. I think English and the other Germanic languages did something similar--lost the original Indo-European word and called a bear "the brown one."
The pistol was probably a .380 CZ Model 82, lots of these guns are in circulation in the former USSR states.
From the map this clearly happened in Slovakia. Slovakia and Slovenia don’t help matters by having very similar flags.
Lots of locales (Texas and Chile), (Netherlands, Italy, France), (USA and Malaysia) have similar flags also but I seldom see confusion.
Given that the author refers to ‘Slovakian bears’ rather than ‘Slovak bears’ he probably is in need of an editor anyway.
This article confuses Slovakia with Slovenia.
Monaco and Indonesia have identical flags but that probably doesn’t cause many problems. Both are the Polish flag upside-down.
This article confuses Slovakia with Slovenia.
Mea Culpa.
The Texas flag is just a Polish flag with a blue background and a star on the left side.
Where’s that can of Bear Spray when you need it?
The spray is not always enough to stop an attack anyway
Save it for use vs activist fanatics, such as Antifa.
Luxembourg's flag is the same as the Dutch flag, except that Luxembourg's uses baby blue and Holland's uses royal blue. Similarly, Somalia's flag is the same as the Confederacy's Bonnie Blue Flag, except that Somalia's is baby blue and the Bonnie Blue Flag is royal blue.
I was in a shopping mall in Zvolen (about 30 miles south of the mentioned location) a few years ago and recall a store with a long rack of rifles for sale - in spite of the ‘no handgun’ sign on the mall doors. I was seeking either an ATM or bathroom and didn’t have time to stop. They could have been air rifles though...
I just did a few searches - pistol ownership is much more tightly controlled and limited in Slovakia compared to rifle ownership is less controlled and much more common. I seem to recall similar in other nearby countries.
I was surprised at how relatively easy it seemed to be to get a permit to have a pistol at home for self defense.
Much harder to obtain a permit to carry a concealed pistol, but far from impossible.
Handguns made before 1890 are not regulated, but I am not clear if they can be carried concealed without a permit.
These bears are only a problem because of EU judges who keep releasing them.
"...some large American breasts!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.