Man shoots bear charging at him on his property... Charged by police...

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/04/07/auburn-man-facing-charges-after-killing-bear-in-his-backyard/

Did he lure a bear in for a kill? Impossible to know. Doesn't matter, burden of proof is on the state and because they can never prove it there is no way he should ever be charged with a crime.

Will he get to keep the bear arms you think?

Of course, everybody has the right to bear arms.

Unless there is evidence not mentioned in the article this seems an obvious case of self defense.

Any juror that voted to convict this guy should also be shot in the head.

Clear cut case of self defense.

"Police don’t believe the bear was a threat to people."

If it had cubs then that made it a huge threat to people. Nothing like a pissed off mother bear who thinks she's protecting her cubs.

He admitted he saw the bear prior. Instead of calling authorities, he decided he was going to carry his gun (which he owned illegally) and look for an opportunity to shoot it. I'd say they have a case.

That scenario has nothing on - 76-year-old man, stocking his bird feeder, shoots an attacking bear.

Possibly, but it hasn't been made by this article.

Did he bump fire the shotgun?

Is this guy a felon? A victim of mental illness? If not, how the hell is his owning a shotgun illegal? Any local ordinance that says otherwise is about to get smacked right between the eyes by Heller.

He probably should have called animal control on Thursday, this is true. But failing to do that shouldn't be seen as a crime. As Clyde said, unless there is evidence not in the article, he shouldn't be charged. That said, the article is clearly inadequate. What are we talking about here? A fine? Jail time? Community service? What are the details of the legal violation? We just don't know anything other than the man shot the bear, was charged with a crime, and (shockingly) proclaims his innocence.

That's because the article wasn't edited beforehand. Otherwise it would have read 'an assault rifle'

Holy shit people are stupid. It's a fucking bear, not a person. Who cares if this guy killed it on his own property?

We had an incident here last summer where somehow a wild bear wandered into an urban area and was hanging around a children's playground. The police were called in. Their first response was to contact the Ministry of Natural Resources (which handles wildlife) but they were advised that none of their officers were available to deal with the bear and, even so, attempting to tranquilize a wild bear in an urban environment was probably a very bad idea since the tranquilizers don't take immediate effect. So the police cleared the area and shot the bear.

The dumbass public went nuts and criticized the police for animal cruelty. This is stupid, since the police's primary job is to protect the public. A fucking bear was roaming a public playground in a heavily-populated urban area. What would you do? Invite it over for tea? Sheesh.

We had a similar incident last Summer. A bear was repeatedly sighted working his way in from the suburbs. He never quite made it to Boston -- animal control caught up with him in a town just outside the city. He had been treed by a dog, so they shot him with tranquilizer darts and about an hour later he fell out of the tree. Yeah, that would sure work had the situation been that he was running through a crowded park for an hour before passing out.

I love bears, and I hate the thought of killing them. However, they can be dangerous if cornered or if you have a mother with cubs, so you have to always be cautious around them.

Do I think the old man should be convicted of a crime? Hell no! At the same time, if he knew there was a bear in the area, couldn't he have waited to fill his bird feeder another time when the bear wasn't around?

You're an idiot.

He saw the bear the previous day but it obviously left. If he called authorities what would they do other then take a report some guy saw a bear? Call out the fucking army?

The next day he decided to restock his bird feeder and since he obviously lives in a wooded area decided to take his shotgun just in case the bear came back.

Is he not allowed access to his backyard?

And they need to go into some detail on how owning a shotgun is illegal.

When is the right time to know a bear isn't around?

Is there some special bear radar that one can buy?

I misunderstood. I thought it said he saw the bear earlier and went out anyway.

He owned a shotgun ILLEGALLY!!!

I didn't know that was possible. Maybe it's just me, but if a shotgun can be illegal then damn near ANY gun made can be illegal.

Hell, the honorable Joe Biden is on record as publicly saying people should fire a couple of shotgun rounds into the air to scare off intruders....

If only this guy had followed Biden's advice....

As for this,

Massachusetts has sane gun laws, which means you need a Firearm Identification license in order to purchase arms or ammunition. To get a license you must he able to document safety training. Anybody can get one, but without it, even a shotgun is illegal. This guy probably took advantage of the New Hampshire loophole.

I say they should be fed to bears.

-- that you either let yourself be killed or go to prison.

Yep. That's sane, all right.

Whenever I call the local police to report a bear sighting, they say "Yeah, yeah. Don't go near it, don't feed it, wait for it to go away before you go out." Maybe 10 minutes later a police car will cruise by to see if it's still around. It's so common around here it's like they don't really care any more.

MASS gun laws are teh sucks.

So he killed the Bear in self defense and now he's being charged? Yep, that's our justice system for you. I'm sure that soon PETA will be burning him in effigy for the horrible killing of Winnie the Poo.

"He's coming straight for us!!!"

I don't understand why it was so urgent that he go out there at night to restock his bird feeder, especially after seeing a bear out there. Bears tend to be nocturnal. He's pretty dumb for not restocking the bird feeder during the daytime.

Your post would make sense, if it wasn't so full of stupid. It's easy to get a gun in Massachusetts. You take a gun safety class, then take your piece of paper to the gun store. Anybody who can understand a few rules like not pointing a gun at something you don't intend to shoot, always treating the gun as if it is loaded, etc., can get a gun. If this guy used the NH loophole, he was either lazy (and will now pay a price for that), or he is too stupid to demonstrate awareness of safe handling procedures.

Patently false.

Toldja.