Posted on 04/25/2023 11:02:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof posited the idea in a recent piece that people who are worried about people breaking into their homes should get bear spray for self-defense instead of a firearm.
Kristof wrote about the idea after home shootings involving Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.
Elsewhere, brutes send their victims to the E.R.; in America, they send them to their graves. Foreigners admire our popular culture, our technology, our lifestyle, but are bewildered by our refusal to rein in guns.
In the 1990s when I was Tokyo bureau chief of The Times, Japanese people regularly spoke to me about a 1992 incident in which a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori, was shot dead in Louisiana after knocking on the wrong door. The homeowner said he thought the boy was a burglar and ordered him to 'freeze'; Hattori perhaps didn’t understand 'freeze' or misheard the man as saying 'please.' In any case, the boy moved, and the man shot him with a .44 magnum.
"I backpack, and it's well known that bear spray is more effective against a charging grizzly than a handgun. Probably also more effective against a home invader. Think of it as harm reduction," he tweeted.
We could even encourage worried homeowners to buy bear spray for protection. I backpack, and it's well known that bear spray is more effective against a charging grizzly than a handgun. Probably also more effective against a home invader. Think of it as harm reduction.— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) April 22, 2023
"We accept inconveniences to reduce auto fatalities: seatbelts, speed limits, no riding in the backs of pickup trucks. So why don't we accept tradeoffs to reduce gun mortality? In MS, it's easier to buy an AR-15 than to adopt a Chihuahua. Why should that be?" he further tweeted.
Kristof was predictably mocked for the idea of using bear mace:
You do realize that indoors, bear spray would affect the intruder and the homeowner?
If you don’t understand what you are talking about, just set this one out and let the adults handle it.— Cavalry Doc (@desertveteran) April 23, 2023
While painful, bear spray is weaker than pepper spray - designed for use on an animal with 1000x more sensitive sense of smell.
Legally, you can be in jeopardy if you use bear spray as a self-defense tool .
Poor survival advice against asocial violence.https://t.co/imvsbtBKGQ— Joel (@joelgaines) April 24, 2023
You've obviously never fished in Alaska, where every other fisherman has a 454 Casull on their hip because of grizzlies and brown bear, not spicy perfume.— LeeRoyJenkins® (@NunyaBiznnes) April 24, 2023
If you give up your guns and get bear spray instead, it’s only a matter of time until they make bear spray illegal and come to take it.
This Kristof goofball used to write trash my local fish wraps carried back in the Reagan years. First class idiot.
“Foreigners are bewildered by our refusal to rein in guns.”
Are they really? I wonder if they are really that stupid.
Hmmm... would bear spray work if the bear had a gun?
For all the talk bear spray is less potent than mace.
No one needs to own a large-capacity bear spray canister.
Couldn’t care less about what foreigners think. I notice nobody cares about my opinion of them.
“”We accept inconveniences to reduce auto fatalities: seatbelts, speed limits, no riding in the backs of pickup trucks. So why don’t we accept tradeoffs to reduce gun mortality?””
Well … in most auto incidents, there is no malice or intent to harm, whereas the act of burglary shows intent implied by its existence.
Why not bear spray AND a gun? Bear spray and SEVERAL guns! And one or two of those handheld small flame-throwers. And a couple of dobermans. I mean, do we HAVE to choose one...? That’s the question everyone should be asking.
LOL!!!
Democrats and other socialists should be limited to carrying Glade air freshener. I heard that it will stop a charging grizzly schizophrenic at two yards.
Why not both?
The right to keep and bear arms is specifically enumerated in our Constitution for one. States have great leeway regarding commerce within the state, especially for known pest species.
Qualifications, or lack thereof, noted.
In a lot of vehicle accidents there is a lot of idiocy and gross negligence. That tends to kind of make others irate.
Ha! Spraying bear spray in an enclosed room would be pretty bad on me too.
RE: Why not both?
I take it that the NYT columnist dislikes someone getting killed. Unfortunately he does not consider the possibility that the victim COULD be killed without firearms to protect him.
Handguns take bears down all the time. It’s good to know what you are doing and talking about.
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