Isn’t That Interesting?

I guess this tale started a couple of months ago when I posted an image of myself on social media, holding a blue grouse I had dispatched with a shotgun, and there on my right hip was a revolver.

Over the years, photos of me in the woods with a sixgun strapped on are about as common as bags of potato chips in a grocery store. However, one observer made the observation, “Interesting that the hunter is carrying a sidearm.” Huh? What the heck is so “interesting” about that, some folks wondered.

Maybe I run with an oddball bunch, but for decades, it’s been a privilege to associate with “interesting” guys who almost invariably hit the wilds with a handgun on their hip or pretty darned close at hand. There is a page on Facebook to which I belong called “Washington Hikers and Climbers With Guns.” That doesn’t leave much to wonder about, does it?

I’ve been packing a handgun while hiking, fishing or hunting since I was, well, a lot younger than I am now. I hunted raccoons and other small game in my teens with a guy who had hounds. He was a mentor who seemed impressed with my ability to hit what I was shooting at, and when one of his pals handed me a loaded Colt Detective Special and dared me to hit a skunk cabbage about 20 yards away — and I did so with the first shot — they were both duly impressed. (How does anybody miss a skunk cabbage, even with a gun he’s never handled previously?)

So, the observation seemed kind of silly; something you might hear from somebody “who ain’t from around here.”

Bear Attacks

So, one recent morning, I was busy putting together information for a story I was writing about grizzly bear attacks in Montana and Idaho. I suggest this is a red flag signal to folks in my home state, Washington, where there is a highly publicized—and disputed—plan by the Biden-Harris administration to reintroduce the big bruins back to the Evergreen State.

Aside from the idea being doorknob stupid, reports from the other states reinforce the notion that it’s got a dangerous component.

CBS News reported last month about a sow grizzly chasing a hunter up a tree, and just before he started climbing, he “shot the bear with a pistol.” When officers with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) came to the rescue, the wounded bear was finished off. The bear had two cubs and most likely attacked because of their presence, but that doesn’t make a possible mauling any less painful.

Then there was the 72-year-old guy who was picking huckleberries back in July north of Columbia Falls. As reported by CBS News at the time, “He used a handgun to kill the bear in what officials say was a “surprise defensive encounter.” The old gent was hospitalized, but he survived the encounter, and it might have been the handgun’s presence that made the difference.

Massad Ayoob, longtime columnist for American Handgunner and GUNS magazines, and a nationally-recognized personal-defense expert, has mentioned occasionally how self-defense can sometimes be against dangerous animals rather than dangerous people. I cannot recall a single case of someone being prosecuted for killing an animal, including a protected species, in true self-defense.

Case in point: Earlier this year, an Idaho bowhunter was attacked by a grizzly west of Henrys Lake in Island Park, near the far east border with Wyoming and Montana. The victim and his partner, both armed with handguns, shot the bear, killing it. This was an adult male grizzly, and the two hunters were after elk, according to NBC News. The report concluded, “Conservation Officers conducted a thorough investigation and determined that the hunters acted in self-defense during a surprise encounter with the bear from a very close distance.”

Back in April, a guy hunting for antler sheds on private property northwest of Helena encountered a grizzly that charged to within 10 feet before it died from a gunshot wound. Once again, as reported by KRTV News, this guy was armed with a handgun and fired five shots. The attacking bear was a sow, and it had a single cub, which was subsequently captured by FWP and, by now, should be living in an accredited zoo.

As we head toward late autumn and early winter, bears are fattening up before they den, but that doesn’t mean you can let down your guard. There are other things with teeth in the wilds — mountain lions, wolves and coyotes — and despite arguments, these animals avoid people; sometimes they don’t, and the outcome can be unpleasant.

“Social Pressure Index”

Ever hear of something called the “Social Pressure Index?” Neither had I until about a month ago when National Review’s John Fund mentioned it during a presentation at the Gun Rights Policy Conference.

I contacted Fund — an amiable guy and a very good journalist — who sent me the link to a study by a Massachusetts-based think tank called Populace, and it was fascinating. Populace conducted this research, which was designed to estimate “the gap between Americans’ privately held beliefs and their publicly stated opinions.”

Guess what Populace discovered? Younger Americans — referred to generically as “Gen Z” — acknowledged stronger support for gun ownership than the previous generation, identified as Millennials, 40% to 37%.

While that got my attention, so did this: Most people support private gun ownership, although 26% publicly support outlawing guns. In private, however, the study found only 22% hold that view.

The 145-page study noted how the disparities between what people say publicly and what they believe privately “suggest the presence of competing social pressure, depending on one’s age: while many from Gen Z feel compelled to suppress their private disagreement and publicly agree with banning gun ownership, many Millennials feel compelled to do the opposite and hide their true support for making guns illegal.”

The Populace research also revealed White and Hispanic Americans “are least supportive of outlawing gun ownership in public (24% and 31%, respectively), and their private support is even lower (16% and 20%, respectively).”

“Likewise,” the report added, “a minority of Black and Asian Americans agree that gun ownership should be illegal, with roughly one in three supporting this view both publicly and privately (ranging from 32% to 41% agreement).”

Illegals and Guns

Last month, Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde, a Republican and FFL holder who has been a firearms dealer for many years, introduced a bill called the “No Guns for Illegal Aliens Act,” which would prohibit illegal immigrants from buying guns, using government-issued identification to complete the transaction, as I wrote at the time.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia issue driver’s licenses to “unauthorized immigrants,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

If you live in one of these states, you might want to ask your state legislators about this.

Subscribe To GUNS Magazine