Bizarre, Criminal law, Environment, Society, Torts

Bee Keeper Allegedly Shoots Himself After Setting Up Snare Gun For Honey-Loving Bear

John Frost allegedly bagged himself in setting up a snare gun to shoot a bear in Loveland, Colorado. The bear had recently knocked over Frost’s beehive and stolen some of his honey. Police believe Frost set up a shotgun with a tripwire and then tripped the wire.

The incident is being widely cited among bears as proof that there is a God.

Snare guns and “man traps” are illegal in every state that I know of. Under the common law, it is battery to protect your property with force calculated to cause serious bodily injury or death. In famous cases like Bird v. Holbrook, 4 Bing. 628, 130 Eng. Rep. 911 (1825), courts have ruled that “[n]o man can do indirectly that which he is forbidden to do directly.” Not only are such devices viewed as immoral (because human life is more valuable than property), but dangerous because such devices cannot tell the difference between friend and foe.

Of course, the case focused on shooting humans for property not animals. However, states make no such distinction. Frost appears to have denied that he created a snare gun. It would not only likely violate state laws but would also violate hunting laws unless he was permitted to shoot bear. The state, however, has decided not to press charges. Presumably, the shotgun blast was viewed as punishment enough.

He is lucky. Snare guns come up every year — often with a bystander or police officer shot by mistake. The morons who set up these devices are often looking at both civil and criminal liability.

The subject bear was later interviewed about the incident below:

Source: Coloradoan

Jonathan Turley

18 thoughts on “Bee Keeper Allegedly Shoots Himself After Setting Up Snare Gun For Honey-Loving Bear”

  1. Blouise and Elaine,

    Larson’s got a book out “There’s a Hair in My Dirt.” It’s everything you’d hope for in a Gary Larson book.

  3. “Poetic Justice”, you gotta’ love it IMO.
    🙂

    This fellow is a Darwin Award recipient contender.

  4. Elaine M., the embed code on YouTube isn’t working for many of us anymore but Pete instructed me (Than you Pete!) to just copy the address code in the address bar and that works to embed. I tested it today and it works fine, it automatically embeds the vid. Maybe something new from YouTube that needs more publicity?

  5. Elaine,

    Welcome home … read your post on another thread … wonderful time in Florida!

    (I think Larson retired in ’94 … I miss his wit)

  8. At least you have another case to emphasize that motive, but not stupidity, is irrelevant to setting snare guns when you teach Bird v. Holbrook.

  9. Frost must have gotten lessons on gun safety from Dick Cheney.

    Lewis Black on Hunting & Dick Cheney:
    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OAJXYRxMQg&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]

  11. Maybe the booby trap builder was just trying to “nip the bear” in the bud???

    NO NO, that was Jack Frost.
    Sorry wrong guy

  14. Some years back there was a spate of car radio thefts in our area. I thought about wiring my car up to the mains overnight, then thought better of it for prcisely this reason.

  18. “The incident is being widely cited among bears as proof that there is a God.” (from the article)

    🙂

    (Something a little lighter, after Paul Krugman’s NY Times Op-Ed piece, “There Will Be Blood”…)

Comments are closed.