There are some things in life that you just don’t want to experience. I’d prefer not to get severe burns over most of my body, for example. Other examples include sticking my head inside an animal trap, using a home circumcision kit, a long period of lovemaking with Lena Dunham, and being charged by a grizzly with an attitude problem.

One Montana hunter, however, can check that last one off his bucket list.

An elk hunter shot a charging grizzly bear Tuesday morning near the Sun River Canyon west of Augusta on the Rocky Mountain Front.

The encounter took place mid-morning, according to a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

The Great Falls-area hunter, whose name has not been released, apparently surprised the grizzly at the head of Home Gulch, about three miles south of the Sun River Canyon Road, wardens said.

The hunter told wardens he fired a warning shot in the air, but the bear charged him anyway. The hunter shot at the bear, and said he thought he hit it three times. The bear turned and ran, and the hunter left the area and then notified FWP.

An FWP bear management specialist soon flew over the area, but could not see any sign of the bear. FWP game wardens are now on the ground trying to locate the bear.

While the news report was less than specific, it’s probable that the primary casualty of this encounter–other than the bear, obviously–was the hunter’s shorts.

More seriously, this is an important example of something that is often missed in the gun debate. Many of the estimated 2.5 million uses of a firearm in self-defense are cases much like this. You won’t find this hunter’s story in criminal statistics or on a police blotter. There’s no police report on an attack where the individual acted in self-defense because no crime was committed, either by the hunter or against him.

Yet there are those in this country who would argue that self-defense isn’t a valid reason to use a firearm. I know, I’ve had those “discussion” with people.

Luckily, cooler heads prevail and this man was able to defend himself just fine.

“Oh, but he was hunting. Of course, he could defend himself,” some might argue, and they’re right. However, he just as easily could have been hiking in similar terrain. The laws that many anti-gun zealots propose would have left someone in those circumstances vulnerable. Their chances of becoming Winnie’s pooh would be so much greater.

Remember this the next time some anti-gun crusader decides to pontificate on the evils of guns and how there’s no place for them. You and I both know that it’ll happen. Anti-gun politicians love to claim they don’t want all the guns, but we all know what a load of bovine excrement that is. That’s all they’re demanding today.

However, you and I also know that if you scratch just a bit, it won’t be hard to find someone who wants all the guns gone or so heavily under lock and key as to make it impossible to use them for anything. Ever.

Those people would have seen this hunter killed.