Since 1948, there have been more than 275 unprovoked alligator attacks on humans in Florida, of which at least 17 resulted in death. There were only nine fatal attacks in the U.S. throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, but alligators killed 12 people between 2001 and 2007. In May 2006, alligators killed three Floridians in less than a week. Those statistics were the furthest from my mind as I sat cross-legged with my elbows resting on my knees in the bow of a slowly moving jon boat. Trying to paint the gator’s eye with the EOTech MRDS as he floated...