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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – Following the South Hadley man who was attacked by a bear in Wyoming, we spoke with bear biologists who told us mother grizzly bears are the most dangerous bears, and luckily here in western Mass we only see black bears. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use caution when going into the woods, no matter what state you’re in.
Some honeymooners opt for a beach vacation, others a European tour, but South Hadley resident Shayne Patrick Burke and his new wife Chloe opted to ring in their marriage with a little nature, and it seems they may have gotten a larger taste of wildlife than they signed up for. During their honeymoon hike, the couple split up and while apart, Shayne was trying to find a particular owl, but what he found was much grislier.
“I was moving. I was just like, just watching my GPS,” Shayne recalled.
When he looked up, he was face to face with a grizzly cub and the mama bear was not far behind.
“She went towards my head, but I kept my hands interlocked like this and just like, protected my arteries and my neck. She bit down and got my left wrist and my right hand. I heard a pop, and at that point in my head I was like, all right, she’s, she’s in my skull.
It turns out it wasn’t his skull but instead a can of bear spray. After a taste of that, the mama bear ran off.”
Western Mass News spoke with bear biologist and founder of Kilham Bear Center in New Hampshire Ben Kilham. He told us this was a case of wrong place at the wrong time.
“He did what he could. They say if a bear attacks, and that one did, with a grizzly bear lay down and cover your neck.”
According to Kilham, mama grizzlies are the most dangerous type of bear there is, and luckily there are no grizzlies anywhere near us here in western Mass or across New England, but we do have black bears. Kilham said large males are the type you want to look out for, but more often than not, they’ll give you a warning called a bluff charge, and that’s why Kilham said it’s very important to understand how bears communicate before stepping into the forest.
“They signal everything that they are up to and they have to because they interact with other bears as strangers so they signal their intention and responded they are quite honestly very easy to read if you have that knowledge.”
While grizzly bear attacks happen several times a year, black bear biologist Dave Wattles told us it is very unlikely to be attacked by a black bear.
“It’s important to know the difference between the temperament and the nature of a black bear and a grizzly bear. A grizzly bear is a much larger, much more inherently much more aggressive animal than the black bear.”
In fact Wattles told us we’re very fortunate here in Massachusetts that we have never had someone seriously injured by a black bear but it is still a possibility. Which is why MassWildlife urges the public not to keep any unsecure food in your yard such as bird feeders, trash or even chickens.
Now, if you do come in contact with a bear, it’s important to talk slowly and stand your ground and never run. If you see the bear before it sees you, keep your distance, make noise so you don’t startle them and back away slowly. As for Burke, Shayne only spent a single night in the hospital, though his recovery will last for months.
Copyright 2024. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.
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New Hampshire is leading an effort from 25 states to challenge a Massachusetts gun law, and this month, they’re taking it to the Supreme Court.
The centerpiece of the argument is the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., which reaches across state lines into Tyngsborough. If shoppers park on the south side of the mall’s parking lot, they might end up crossing state lines during a visit.
The attorneys general of New Hampshire and 24 other Republican-led states say this poses a potential problem for firearm holders. A New Hampshire resident who is legally carrying a firearm on their home state’s side of the parking lot may inadvertently be breaking the law when they cross the lot into Massachusetts, where it is illegal to carry without a permit.
Joining New Hampshire are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, who are calling the arrangement unconstitutional. The states have rallied behind Phillip Marquis of Rochester, N.H., to ask the Supreme Court to protect out-of-state residents from Massachusetts’ firearms regulations.
“The geography of the mall is such that a New Hampshire resident might find themselves in Massachusetts if she parks on the south side of the parking lot or visits Buffalo Wild Wings,” reads a brief from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court. “If that person is carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license — which would be constitutionally protected activity in most of the mall—that person risks being charged as a felon and facing mandatory incarceration in Massachusetts.”
The trouble began for Marquis in 2022 when he was in a car accident in Massachusetts, according to the brief. When police arrived, he informed them that he had a pistol on him and was subsequently charged with carrying a firearm without a license.
Marquis previously sued the Commonwealth for the burdens that Massachusetts’ firearms permit law creates on out-of-state visitors, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his claims. They ruled in March that the state’s nonresident firearms licensing laws were constitutional, according to court documents.
Claiming that the Massachusetts court denied him his Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights, Marquis has petitioned the Supreme Court to federally overrule that court’s decision. In his petition, Marquis invoked New York State Rifle & Police Association, Inc. v. Bruen, where the court established that state firearms restrictions must be covered by the Second Amendment or adhere to historical firearms regulations.
Using Bruen, Marquis and the Republican attorneys general supporting him are aiming to prove that there is no justification for applying Massachusetts’ firearms restrictions to out-of-state residents and that to do so would be unconstitutional. However, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court found the law constitutional even under Bruen because it intends to prevent dangerous people from obtaining firearms, just as historical regulations have done.
“To the extent that the Commonwealth restricts the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms within its borders, the justification for so doing is credible, individualized evidence that the person in question would pose a danger if armed,” the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision read. “Both case law and the historical record unequivocally indicate that this justification is consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’”
It’s not immediately clear if the Supreme Court will respond to Marquis’ appeal or when it will make any kind of decision, but lower courts are at something of a crossroads with how and when to apply Bruen to gun possession cases. As such, they are looking to the Supreme Court for a more definitive answer.
Since the proof of historical context that Bruen requires has led to some uncertainty, any ruling that these lower courts make is likely to amount to a partisan decision. However, if the Supreme Court provides more substantive clarity in a response to Marquis, these lower courts just might find the answer they are seeking.
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Massachusetts State Lottery players won two $100,000 prizes Friday from the day’s “Mass Cash” drawings.
The winning tickets were sold at the Roslindale Food Mart on Washington Street and McSheffrey’s of the South End convenience store (with Mobil gas) on Main Street in Woburn.
Mass Cash drawings happen twice daily, at 2 p.m. and at 9 p.m. It costs just $1 to play.
Overall, at least 625 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including 6 in Springfield, 22 in Worcester and 14 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
The two largest lottery prizes won so far in 2025 were each worth $15 million. One of the prizes was from a winning “Diamond Deluxe” scratch ticket sold in Holyoke, and the other was from a “300X” scratch ticket sold on Cape Cod.
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