“It was 10 feet from our son’s bedroom door,” she said.
“I ran back into our bedroom to grab my husband and say,‘There’s a bear in the house, there’s a bear in the house!’”
Mark Traverse, who is a hunter, quickly grabbed his gun, loaded it, and approached the feasting grizzly.
“It took a step to me and I shot it. It took another step and I shot it again,” Mark said.
The bear soon died on the kitchen floor.
The couple now credits their pet for alerting them in time.
“This is the dog that saved us,” Mark said as he scratched the little dog’s chest.
Mark was able to access the rifle from a locked locker in the bedroom. It was unloaded, as is required by Canadian law. Fortunately he had time to load the rifle before the bear investigated the bedroom.
The story might have been different if he had to retrieve the rifle from a locked safe in another part of the house. I have not been able to determine the make or caliber of the rifle.
Canadian bear attack stories are often ignored by American media.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Dying isn’t special. Getting killed while trying to save innocent children is a good, honorable death. Living after standing around while innocent children were murdered would be much worse. That of course, assumes that going in will get you killed. Really the choice is live/die a hero, or live in shame.
Yes. I would not be able to live with myself if I didn’t.
I told my kids that if something like this happened at their school to escape if they can. And I told them I would come and get them. I made that decision after Columbine. Anyone can make that decision ahead of time. Then you don’t have to wonder what you’re going to do. The police can do whatever they like including shooting me in the back as I ingress the school. Inaction is total cowardice whether there is one or many cops on scene. Having said that I regret allowing my children to go to public school as we had home schooled and private schooled them previously. Nowadays I would never allow my kids any where near a public school. If you have kids there I am unable to express it any greater than this: TAKE THEM OUT OF SCHOOL AND EDUCATE THEM YOURSELF!!!!! It can be done by anyone who cares enough to make sure their kids get educated. Contact your local home school association for assistance.
A point I have not heard discussed so far: one our arguments is that armed police or armed teachers would not only be able to respond to a shooter but would serve as a deterrent. This kid in Florida must have known there was an armed deputy at the school and he went in anyway. The gun free zone as a shooting gallery argument seems less forceful after this. The kid could not have known the armed deputy would not resist him. I don’t know what to make of this.
Hard question. Hard to know for certain my actions.
But several years ago I was one of two firefighters first on the scene of a massive explosion. There was very real fear of a secondary explosion. But we went in in order to help evacuate the casualties. When the FBI showed up hours later they declined to enter because of the ongoing danger – and they were right to do so.
Going in was a defining moment for me. I’d always believed I’d be willing to risk my life to save others – and that day I demonstrated I could. If you live a sacrificial life-style, if you value serving others, if you don’t walk around thinking “whatever happens, I go home at the end of the day”, then yeah, you should be able to lay your life on the line for people you’ve never met.
By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1st John 3:16
Armed and on scene? Yes but I would use the tactical training I learned in the military and not just rush in.
I think most of us probably would in this specific circumstance (school/children) – if we were him and that was our job. (Hell, maybe even if not). But i guess you never know for sure. I’d probably be scared shitless (or maybe not until afterwards who knows?) but standing by idly while children are being killed that you are supposed to be protecting is a fate worse than death.
I think Gov. Scott is about to see a few Republican primary challengers emerge…
The “crown” (prosecutor) will probably prosecute him for violating the bear’s “civil-rights”, or for using too much force”.
The man obviously lured the bear into his house with a sign that said “Free Honey”. Won’t someone think of the 500 lb killing machines?
IMHO… We should all search our hearts and minds well before ever being confronted by evil like this… We need to be as ahead of the curve as possible…
I can honestly say that I will go ALL in without hesitation…
I’ve seen more than once that I’m under an incredible amount of protection from my Father… They can kill me but I will not dye, I’ve already done that…
I pray that my Lord calm may heart, steady my aim and allow me to open that gates of Sheol then send them through…
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
Rabboni is my benchmark… I hope He’s yours to… Carry on TTAG…
Cool. I wish they had some Hornady 300 BLK Sub-X. I’ve been waiting a while to see that, especially in a case quantity price.
I have been a Freedom Munitions customer for several years. Started with 9mm and has expanded to 308, 357, .223/5.56 and recently some .22WMR. I have shot thousands of rounds and have had one squib and realized immediately what had happened. Don’t remember any other failures. Plus they have all kinds of specials on delivery cost and I take advantage of that regularly. Glad you have them on board
The Fl GOP backed omnibus “gun control” bill is on the Fl Senate’s rules committee for Monday. Consider it passed. Only hope now is the Fl House.
And civilian disarmament overtakes the much wept about women’s issues in the progressive heirarchy of desire. At least for awhile.
Sounds like Valenti is anti-choice. She doesn’t want individual women to be able to make their own choices on this issue. She wants their decisions to be dictated by the matriarchy. Why can’t she just leave this decision to a woman and her firearms retailer. It’s a very personal decision.
You can make the choices we let you make, comrade.
All you so called #2a activist are you all on social media daily putting out the #progun message?
If ur a gun owner and freedom loving American u should be!
10 yo girls master all the social media platforms can’t u grown ass men and women?
Lets ban school shooting and all criminals will comply……right?
Well….. banning stairs and bathtubs would save many lives!
Lets ban Drunk driving!
Lets ban drugs that worked out great!
And those assault spoons are killing so many people with diabetes,heart disease etc…..MILLIONS!!!
Join the GOA!
The NRA is just interested in money and giving enuff of our rights away so they can scream gun ban…..give us money ….it has become their great scam. You
don’t give in on My Civil Rights to protect myself and self defense of my children!
The GOA does not comprise! Compromising with a Anti-gun person is like trusting
a wolf to leave ur sheep alone! They want it all
@
.
Set a Reminder! Write and call ur reps hourly,daily please.Thanks!
https://democracy.io/
https://callyourrep.co/
@
.
@WHO_WOULD_SUPPORT_OR_VOTE_FOR_A_PERSON_WHO_WANTS_TO_TAKE_UR_RIGHT_TO_SELF_DEFENSE_OF_UR_CHILDREN??
@WHEN_2NDS_COUNT_YOU_ARE_THE_FIRST_LINE_OF_DEFENSE_AND_FIRST_RESPONDER_FOR_YOU_AND_YOUR_FAMILY_IF_OR_UNTIL_
HELP_GETS_THERE_PREPARE_SURVIVE!!
@
.
If someone wants to stop or restrict your RIGHT TO DEFEND YOUR FAMILIES LIFE ….THEY SHOULD NOT BE A FRIEND OR SOMEONE YOU SUPPORT
OR VOTE FOR………….EVER!!!!!
Will banning pencils and keyboards stop Misspellings?
Don’t argue with anti-gun people engage them with facts that are on our side!
Thanks for supporting Gun Rights,America and our Veterans and Military!
…wowza! Thems some claws on that beastie!
They say this murderer had 6 minutes to fire these shots. I’m just real surprised the death count was only 17. That’s only 2.83 persons per minute! Had there been defensive firearms in this school (not counting the deputies) This idiot could have been taken out with very few injuries. Yea, one teacher armed by themselves may have had a difficulty taken out this creep, but 10 or more could have done it. There is strength in numbers.
A bit late to the party here but simply raising the age restriction may help honestly I don’t know. To me the biggest x factor here is mental health things like schizophrenia tend not to really rear their ugly head until early 20s is this one of the causes of school shootings? Your guess is as good as mine. My main thought is kids are more an more frequently being given amphetamines (ADHD meds) as early as 10 and often after that being medicated with antidepressants that can have any number of side affects in high school. In addition people who tend to have problems that get medicated also tend to self medicate with drugs and alcohol. We currently don’t have the research to know what combination of the above factors have a meaningful impact on a person’s propensity for violence. I think another major factor is our current economy lots of people don’t have hope. I think it’s likely the current administration may decide to up the age limit whether it will have any good affect remains to be seen. Personally I think if someone is dead set on commiting mass mayhem they likely will do it regardless of gun laws. Being someone who works in the tech field I think ultimately in the next few years there will likely be a massive program to monitor troubled individuals online behavior think prism to hopefully help prevent stuff like this but the privacy concerns are worrying and should be.
Thank you for any other informative website. The place else may just I
get that kind of info written in such a perfect
means? I’ve a mission that I’m just now working on,
and I have been on the glance out for such information.
I took a look at the CBC’s coverage of this story, and started SMH when I read through the comments. A few lowlights:
Preacher – “Interesting that they’re thankful for the dog waking them up. If they didn’t have the dog they wouldn’t have woken up. The bear would have eaten its fill and left.”
Mike69 -“The bear wanted food. When the bear had finished eating the dog and cat food, the bear would probably have left the house – by climbing out the window. The trigger finger of the home owner moved faster than his brain. He should have stayed in his room for a few minutes more while the bear eat the food.”
Jason Bit – “I would never kill a bear. Or any other animal. There is no honor in killing an animal. He did not have to shoot it, he just needed to fire and the bear would of have run away. Poor animal. Very very sad.”
I’d like to think in the 3 years since the incident, these folks have gotten a little bit less clueless, buuuut I’m gonna guess they haven’t.
It simply proves that people can’t count on TSA-type security or the police to protect them. People need to be able to defend themselves…