The new law permits individuals to use lethal force against bears if they believe there is an "imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury."
  • @snekerpimp@lemmy.world
    47•5 months ago

    “I took away all funding for the arts. Don’t worry, I have a plan. You can now shoot bears. There, everyone is happy.”

  • Kalkaline
    31•5 months ago

    Huh, Florida has bears, I didn’t even think that bears lived that far south.

    • NeatoEnglish
      25•5 months ago

      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.

      • Drusas
        5•5 months ago

        They’re in central Florida, too. Probably all over the state.

  • @shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13•5 months ago

    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?

    • @Mirshe@lemmy.world
      12•5 months ago

      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.

  • @teamevil@lemmy.world
    8•5 months ago

    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…

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    5•5 months ago

    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!

  • @BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    2•5 months ago

    It’s a Good Thing Republicans don’t pass laws that allow you to do the SAME THING to a Human!