Gruesome Rural Bear Drama Forced To Make D.C. Political Point
A horrific, bloody battle between a rural Maryland family and a rabies-crazed black bear was unwittingly exploited to make a point about gun control laws in D.C., an examination of comments left of WTOP-AM's website revealed today.
The awful struggle occurred in the tiny village of Grantsville on Wednesday, when the rabid 130-pound creature decided it really needed to take the window air conditioner from the Stanton family's farmhouse.
The AP reported today:
The bear rushed the house after Charlotte Stanton yelled out her screen door to try to scare it away from a goat pen. Stanton, 39, of rural Grantsville, said she was losing her tussle with the 134-pound sow when Michael Stanton pulled the trigger.
"I finally yelled at my husband, because I couldn't hold on to that air conditioner much longer," she said. "It seemed like forever, but I'm sure it was just seconds."
The load of buckshot didn't kill the bear, which lay bleeding and moaning in the yard of the western Maryland home for about 30 minutes ....
The story just gets worse and worse -- the whole family had to get rabies shots, including the kids, because they were all covered in bear blood, etc. -- but D.C. proponents of gun ownership saw the story as a perfect illustration of the problems people in Washington would face when the rabid bears attack their goat pens:
I cannot believe that gun decided to kill that bear!!!
by L C. @ 2: 48pm - Wed Sep 5th, 2007
What did that bear ever do to that gun to make it respond that way? This was a struggle between a bear and a woman. Why did the gun have to get involved and perpetrate such a senseless killing? I am shocked an disappointed that Maryland hasn't outlawed guns state-wide. Until they do... senseless gun killings like this will just continue.
Good thing it wasnt D.C.
by Eric L. @ 2: 55pm - Wed Sep 5th, 2007
The woman would be dead because her husband would be busy retrieving the PIECES of his shotgun, assembling them, locating the ammunition stored in a different location, running back through the house, shooting the rabid bear off his dead wife's corpse, only to face prosecution for discharging a firearm inside the city...