“I took away all funding for the arts. Don’t worry, I have a plan. You can now shoot bears. There, everyone is happy.”
Huh, Florida has bears, I didn’t even think that bears lived that far south.
There’s a bunch of black bears in NW Florida. During the hell years I lived there 911 would get calls about them in yards and the advice was to leave them alone unless they are hurting someone. Animal control wouldn’t come out if there wasn’t a threat. They were usually just meandering between forest patches. And it was illegal to shoot them in most circumstances; especially since most of this was in subdivisions.
This would effectively allow cowboys to start blasting in your neighborhoods. Probably leaving rotting corpses of young black bears on the corner or in the streets.
They’re in central Florida, too. Probably all over the state.
Where the fuck do you think Gentle Ben lived riding around on his fan boat?
Ah yes, Gentle Ben, the cultural highlight of… checks notes… 1967
Who the fuck is Gentle Ben?
A fucking bear tv show where the bear lived with Clint Howard whose dad was a forest ranger in the everglades. Just like Lassie and Flipper except with a bear.
I had one cruise in my dog door.
How big is your dog?!
Bigger than the average bear, booboo
Had one cruise in my dog door when a friend was house sitting. So I learned a lot about black bears after that.
“imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury”
You could always shoot them in that case. In any case, what problem are they trying to solve here?
And as to the, “shoot first ask questions later”, you could already do that. If I wanted to hunt or kill a black bear, I’d simply say it was attacking me. And who would say different?
Ahhh, but if you read the article, this is different. This redefines it to “if you PERCEIVE there to be a threat of death or injury” - meaning that any suburban cowboy can just blast the bear wandering through their backyard and not hurting anyone because “well I figured it would hurt my kids if it came towards the house”. Kinda like how Wyoming relaxed hunting laws to allow farmers to kill pretty much whatever wolves they came across.
Relevant Southpark clip: https://youtu.be/B3RJUMm-hd0?si=3F_DmzzxbSY29iVB
Thank God he’s protecting us from black bears The only bear that we can scare away. If a grizzly is coming at you unless you got a really powerful weapon you’re done and if a polar bear notices you you’re done. Black bear wave your arms and run at it and it’s scared away… there’s a video of two old people walking out of their house with a black bear on the porch… They don’t see the black bear but it sees them and turns around running scared as hell…
I don’t think there are grizzlies and polar bears in Florida. Maybe in a zoo?
Shit… you know those bears aren’t excluded from the law right?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial bill into law on Friday that allows residents to shoot bears if they perceive a threat, sparking debate and concern among wildlife advocates and others.
The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, permits individuals to use lethal force against bears if they believe there is an “imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury” to a person, pet, or substantial damage to a dwelling.
Elizabeth Fleming, senior Florida representative with Defenders of Wildlife, told Politico on Friday that the bill signing was “very unfortunate” and suggested that legal challenges may be forthcoming.
The bill’s sponsor, Florida state Representative Jason Shoaf, a Republican, faced some lighthearted criticism during the legislative process for his colorful language describing the need for the law.
This viral comment led to a humorous exchange in the Legislature, including a reference to the 2023 movie Cocaine Bear by Eskamani who playfully questioned whether Shoaf was aware that the film was not a documentary.
As the law takes effect next month, state wildlife officials will likely face the challenge of balancing public safety concerns with the need to protect Florida’s bear population.
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Which kind of bear is best?
I always favored the Kamchatka Grizzly my self.
Lookin’ straight up Grrrizzlay
It’s a Good Thing Republicans don’t pass laws that allow you to do the SAME THING to a Human!
Give you three guesses what color the bears are.
Rainbow?
Do you think a person shouldn’t be allowed to defend themselves when their life is in imminent danger?
Sure. Just make sure you figure out some sort of way to either guard against or punish
“oh noes, I feel threatened.” bang
Because only a fool would think that won’t be taken advantage of.
Kyle Rittenhouse out there making a career of exactly that.
South Park explained this quite well in “Volcano”
I can’t tell if you’re aware or not but that is how the law works in Florida
edit: to be clear, I’m saying it’s messed up and abused in that way already
It might be how it’s written, but the way it works is people get shot for a bag of skittles.
that’s what I was trying to say 😞
Don’t take it personally. The world is crazy right now and people (including me) get a little… defensive… from having to have more “I can’t believe this is something I need to talk about” conversations than I think any of us ever anticipated. Looking at it again your word choice wasn’t even off. Hope you’re having a good day.
Hope you’re having a good day.
thanks, I am 👍 hope you are as well, cheers
If you think your life’s in imminent danger because of a black bear your genetics probably should be stopped.
I was referring to their comment pointed at self defense against humans, not bears
Oh, well then my reply might have been slightly too aggressive, fair enough…
