The issue here is not whether or not the guard intended to shoot the bear - obviously, he did. He was trained to do what he had intended to do, and his certification was current.
He just didn't intend to shoot the bear with what actually was in the chamber of the shotgun when he pressed the trigger - a cracker shell or bird bomb, not the intended bean bag round. That's where the difficulty arises for him, for his employer - and not to mention the bear, which died a slow agonizing and completely unintended death as a result of the guard's mistake.
I'm not interested in calling names here. The bear was a bear, doing what bears do a lot - looking for easy eats. Apparently some (or even many) polar bears don't worry too much if the easy eats they come across have two legs instead of four, smell funny, make lots of noise, can't move very fast and don't fight back very effectively, but that's the way things are for creatures at the top of the food chain. And up there in white bear country, they are definitely at the top of the food chain. In my mind that doesn't make the bear aggressive, just normal. Some bears will eat some people given the chance. But then, some people will eat some bears given the chance too. Turn about is fair play, no?
And the guard was just a human being. Doing a job out in the (no doubt) cold, in the (apparently) dark. And he made a mistake. A very human mistake. I can't say for 100% sure it was a mistake, I don't know because my mindreading ability doesn't extend across state lines
D). But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I don't have any bean bag rounds and have never seen one or shot one. I've had some bird bombs in the past but that was a looong time ago and I don't have any currently, we used them all for their intended purpose, routing pestilential birds. I'd hope it would be reasonably easy to tell a bird bomb from a bean bag by feel in the dark with cold fingers - but it might not be. They might both be roll crimped loads with no distinguishing features except color and markings.
If that's the case, THAT'S what needs to be fixed.
And for those of us here, who are not guarding oil installations in the frozen north from abominable snowmen and too-curious bears, can we identify our shotgun shells in the dark by feel with our adrenalin pumping and our heart thundering in our ears? Be honest, now...
How many kinds of loads are in your magazine at one time? Can you really know for 100% sure what will be exiting that muzzle every time you break a shot? How many kinds of loads are in your go gear or on your gun in a buttcuff or Sidesaddle? Can you tell the difference in all of them by feel? Can you distinguish between a star crimped load of birdshot and a star crimped load of buckshot?
I'm not here to try and tell anyone what to do or what not to do. This is teh Intrewebz and I am not your daddy. But I'd like for all of us here not to run up on the opportunity to make a bad mistake in a critical situation the way this guard did. Remember KISS - keep it simple and sure. Don't candy-cane load your magazine, because under real stress you can't count rounds. Don't keep a half dozen kinds of shotgun shells in your go gear or on your gun because "you might need thus and so." Simplify. Louis Awerbuck is the shotgun Yoda as far as I'm concerned, and he uses ONE kind of shotgun shell "for real" - slugs. Period. And he knocks around all over the country (
http://www.yfainc.com/schedule.html) teaching carbine, subgun, pistol and shotgun classes with a coach gun handy. Not a 14" 11-87P, though he has one. Not a long magazine Browning Auto Five Police gun, though he has one. Not a Benelli M1 Super 90 or a Remington 870 or a Mossberg 500. Just a simple coach gun, loaded with slugs.
I took Louis' shotgun class once upon a time, and would have done it again this summer had not family necessity prevented it. I'm certainly not smarter than Louis is, or more experienced, or better with a shotgun. But I use a repeater. That's a harder gun to run than a double barrel coach gun. And there's more that can go wrong with it. We (my wife and I) stick to 870s for the serious guns here, all 12 gauges, and they all work right and they all work the same. I have a dozen different kinds of shotguns that are pretty much toys, but the go-to guns are 870s. I've been shooting 870s on and off for about 40 years now.
We use two kinds of ammo in/on the house guns - 00 buckshot in the magazines, and Brenneke KO slugs in the sidesaddles. Birdshot is for practice and training and hunting. My go bag is an old Army Claymore mine bag with two pockets, one pocket has 20 rounds of loose buckshot (same brand, same load, same lot number even) and the other pocket has 20 rounds of slugs, same deal. The buckshot is star crimped, the slugs are roll crimped. We try to keep it simple. When we take a shotgun out for practice, it's cleaned as needed and loaded with fresh ammo that is double checked to be sure what's where. We try to be consistent. Could we still make a mistake? Sure. But we try to stack the odds in our favor.
You should, too... don't forget about Murphy.
Stay Safe,
lpl
