5/01/2008

Montana man defends himself from bear, but is afraid that he will get in trouble for having a gun in a national park

The Bozeman Chronicle has this story:

LIVINGSTON - Bob Johnson, the mountain man mauled by a grizzly bear last week, has decided to tell the rest of the story.

He shot the bear dead, he said Wednesday, plugging it with a .41-caliber Magnum pistol after it had mauled him once and was returning for a second attack.

Johnson, 55, maintained last week that the details of the attack were hazy. On Wednesday, he said he had been reluctant to tell the whole story because of legal concerns.

He was convicted of a federal poaching charge in the early 1980s and was unsure if carrying a handgun would land him in trouble.

"I was scared of going to jail," he said Wednesday. . . . .

Labels: ,

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent example of self-defence.

I've always thought that the best cases to persuade those who seek to restrict legal gun ownership are those where someone was able to save lives by using an ILLEGAL gun.

It would really wake people up if someone gets a fine or goes to jail for illegal possesion of a gun that they just used to ward of some homicidal maniac.

5/02/2008 11:08 AM  
Blogger Thernlund said...

That article said nothing of him being afraid of jail because he was in a national park. Just that he had a poaching charge from the 80's.

You sensationalizing there John??


-T.

5/02/2008 2:09 PM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Dear T, Herrnlund:

Well an anonymous friend who lives in Montana and who supplied me with the article supplied me with the additional information. Obviously this Mountain Man did not own a lot of land himself. You have two options: either he was on someone else's private property or he was on public lands. Even if hunting on private property is not allowed, I think that it is probably safe to say that a lot of private property isn't posted for people not carrying guns. Public parks are different.

5/03/2008 12:36 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home