The Pitch: A coalition of wildlife advocates in Montana wants to legally force hunters and trappers to carry bear spray. The logic? Keep humans safe, and stop people from shooting grizzlies when things get dicey.
The Bad Timing: The petition dropped right after a grim report about a 33-year-old hiker who was killed by a grizzly in Glacier National Park. The kicker? He actually deployed and emptied his bear spray during the ambush, but it didn’t save him.
The Reality Check: Similar mandates already failed in Idaho and Wyoming because, honestly, how do you police what’s in a hunter’s pack? Plus, hunting inherently breaks all the golden rules of bear safety (hunters walk quietly, travel alone at dawn/dusk, and carry dead meat).
The Data: Advocates point to a record 72 grizzly deaths in 2024, arguing that mandatory spray will lower those numbers. But looking at the stats, most bears die from government “management removals” (usually after eating livestock) or getting hit by cars—not from self-defense shootouts with hunters. Meanwhile, grizzly populations are thriving, hovering around 1,050 in the local ecosystem.
The Bottom Line: While studies show bear spray is highly effective, the hunting community is rolling its eyes at a legal mandate. As one outdoor media personality put it: if a grizzly charges a hunter, they aren’t going to drop their rifle to reach for a can of pepper spray—they’re just going to shoot.
Read more here.
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