I think it's very reasonable to assume good faith on the part of the authors of the FWS statement regarding bears, as well as on the part of Canadians to whom you refer.

Scenarios that assume bad faith seem to lean toward conspiracy theories, government plots, or extreme ignorance on the part of highly trained and experienced field biologists...

But I agree that it's impossible to know the facts at first hand, and since the conclusions are drawn from numerous incidents involving many people, nobody can know the relevant facts at first hand.

Similarly along the lines of assuming good faith, one might well imagine that the vast majority of people who have actually used a firearm for defense against a charging grizzly bear had thought the issue through in advance, with reasonable knowledge and care with regard to specific firepower.

Since I've never shot a grizzly with a .22.....ought I to be skeptical?


Edited by johndavid (05/05/08 06:13 PM)