***** Okay, that's probably enough Dark Materials references. I think I've posted one every time you've mentioned Svalbard, but it needs more publicity as they are fantastic books, and the film really was awful.
Once upon a time every male citizen of Montenegro was legally required to own a Manton-Gasser pistol. But that was only because the king of Montenegro owned stock in the company.
Churchill Manitoba Canada Is on the shores of Hudson's Bay. In the fall the polar bears gather around the town to wait for the bay to freeze so they can get out in the ice and chase seals. On Halloween night all the police and conservation officers have armed patrols around the perimiter of the town looking for bears. The bears haven't eaten in months and would think a small child would make a nice meal. The children aren't allowed to wear white or be out without an adult present.
Firecrackers,but dangerous if they somehow go off in your pocket.I'm sure they have a very low murder rate even though guns are ubiquitous,Switzerland used to require very male between 18 and 62 to keep a rifle by the door, and they did. But in the US we have minorities that ignore all gun laws and kill each other nightly. In my town we had one murder in 25 years in Chicago the same number of people 25K, they have a murder a week. It is the people ,not the guns.
During the Klondike Gold Rush Mounties would inspect American Prospectors at the Alaska-Yukon Border to ensure that they had a hunting rifle (along with a list of other essential provisions). This was considered to be an essential survival tool not only for defense against bears and wolves but also so you could hunt wildlife for consumption. So yes there was a time when Canadian Border Services required Americans to carry firearms with them while crossing the border.
You really make great videos. Not because of a very big production value, but because of very interesting topics and the heart's blood you poor into these. Thanks for that.
Most of the production value is in airfare. I love that Tom actually goes on location when lesser youtubers would talk about something they have no experience with, from the comfort of their desk chairs.
My mother was raised in several places across Alaska, including Kodiak island (home of the largest breed of Grizzly Bear in the world). For basically the reasons listed, they were required to learn how to operate a gun safely in elementary school. the lessons used BB guns (for reason I would think would be fairly obvious), but they were taught to treat them as gingerly as real ones with the understanding that, as with the video, it was for "if something has gone terribly wrong" and they had to operate an actual firearm to prevent being mauled.
@@johnperic6860 Yup. Everyone used to know how to operate common firearms. Everyone used to have easy access to them. Yet firearm violence was minuscule. Education is the most important thing in nearly all aspects. Organized crime is still the leading cause of gun violence in the US, despite what they want you to think.
Aha! The legendary metal Bear, the last of it's kind, killed in 1984 it was stuffed and put on display. Just think, there used to be millions roaming the icy plains, now none are left alive in the wild, such is human nature.
SocksMacguffin It must've been extremely difficult for them to survive there with such stiff flesh, as digging holes, which we all know is something all hairy animales need to do. Here I am in my cave, where I found this nice boulder to dig under with tools, and I hardly ever think about how hard it is for animals like house cats and bears to dig the holes needed for survival.
@@PeterBarnes2 ahh! But nature found a way! For the metal around the joints was like the bendy part of a bendy straw! In fact, it's where we humans got the idea!
stellarfirefly I gathered from his "if you actually kill a bear" that the explosives weren't legal. They'd probably make some cool sounds and nice colors though.
@@Tjalve70 party poppers. Dirt cheap, work a treat and take little force to set them off. I use to use them in my green house to let me know if anyone was trying to rip off my dope plants.
The founding fathers did. That's why the right to bear arms exists. So if you see a bear you can safely go up and give them a big hug with your bear arms. Then they'll become your friend, give you some berries or fresh salmon they caught as a gift, and leave you alone. Sadly, this part of the US constitution has been wildly misunderstood. Which makes no sense.
You have gotten it all wrong, the founding fathers realized that bears wasnt that dangerous or messy, as a result people had a nasty habit of kicking them out and being mean to them, as such the founding fathers wrote the second ammendment "The Right to keep and arm Bears should not be infringed".
@@UGLEIV In the name of animal conservation, I much rather support the right to arm bears instead of the right to bear arms. It's such a waste of perfectly good bears just to kill them for their arms.
There was -- until 2002 if I remember right -- a second place where it was legally mandatory to have a firearm with you by the way : it was required for all pilots flying in Alaska to have a rifle, pistol or shotgun and ammunition for same. And for the same reason as in Svalbard.
You're correct about the law, incorrect about the reason. A gun is a survival tool, and the law left it entirely up to the pilot what sort of gun would best suit his survival needs. A .22 pistol to harvest rabbits and grouse for food would have fulfilled the requirements of that law.
While this is the only place that requires it by law, it's generally good form to carry a rifle for any place significantly out in the woods where large predators are also a thing. when I lived in Georgia, boar and snakes where a problem if you went out into some of the more secluded woods. It was such that if you where out in the woods with a pistol or a muzzle-loader like me, nobody really questioned it. If you had a crossbow, though, they got a bit curious (Poachers use them).
+DFX2KX I'll note that I'd be mortified if I went to a place and actually had to shoot a polar bear. I'll hunt to get food, but having to kill a creature (four legged or otherwise) outside of that isn't a pleasant thought.
We have bears, wolves and snakes. I would never carry a gun with me to the woods. But I understand that situations are different and in the US guns are a norm...
Police: Excuse me sir do you have a gun? Civillian: Yes Police: Good, stay safe. Carry on. Police: Excuse me sir do you have a gun? Civilian: No Police: PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND GET ON THE GROUND!!! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!!!
@@spunkysamuel this ain't communist Russia, we carry fully semiautomatic scary black military grade AR-15s, capable of shooting 300 rounds a second with 1000 round clips, underbarrle chainsaws, and an infinite bullet button on the bump stock. 😁
I have been to Svalbard, the procedure the guides handled when a bear would approach us was as follows: 1. Fire a gun into the air 2. Fire a gun in the direction of the bear, without hitting him 3. Fire a light flare into the air 4. If that does not scare away the polar bear, fire a light flare in front of the polar bear 5. Only when the polar bear still approaches us, and 1-4 did not stop him, you can shoot the bear We were lucky to see some polar bears, and they showed no interest in us.
@@Gojiro7 Polar bears don't just charge you out of nowhere. They approach you slowly. From their point of view they have nothing to fear and you have nowhere to run.
I have also been to Svalbard, and you are 100% wrong. The actual legal regulations are mostly about the minimum caliber of guns that are deemed effective. The "procedure" that you reference is probably just some "advice" that some tours may tell the tourists to stop them from feeling bad about the poor, delicate polar bears. The reality is that if a polar bear approaches slowly... you may try to make loud noise in a hope that it will drive it off (if you are lucky) ... if the bear is approaching fast, or loud noise didn't work... shoot it the heart/lungs or head. What you are suggesting is just a great way to be needlessly eaten by a polar bear. Discharging a gun "into the air" is actually a crime, in Norway and in every other civilized country. (It also violates one of the 4 primary rules of gun safety... ie knowing what is beyond your target... which, in your case would be "anywhere on the planet earth') The procedure you are referencing makes zero sense. Step 1 is dangerous Step 2 is stupid... Do you actually think that a bear can determine the trajectory of a bullet shot towards them vs. (for example) a bullet being shot at a perpendicular angle and then make a determination about the best direction to travel? and change their escape route? Step 3 is kind of redundant as airhorns and firecrackers are used to make load noises... shooting a flare into the air makes a slight whooshing sound and then creates a starburst or smoke depending on the flare that is used (there are also some illumination flares that drift down slowly via parachute) Step 4 is silly... flare guns aren't designed to be used to shoot at anything other than the sky Most importantly, and to reiterate, guns are only supposed to be fired when you actually want to hit something... not firing into the air or hitting "close to something".
@@BatCaveOz If you are out in nowhere firing a gun into the air is absolutely not dangerous. What are you going to hit? A bird? Another polar bear? This rule only applies to populated areas.
@@zagreus5773 And even then, when bullet falls it's not going to be a danger. It'll be travelling a terminal velocity, way slower than when it was fired and someone getting "hit" by it would have as much of an injury as having a small pebble dropped on them.
When we visited Svalbard on a sailing yacht in 2004, we were handed an old Mauser rifle from the 1930ies, that was left by the crew of a german radio-/weatherstation after the Brits drove them out.
+Iain Wilson Tell me more, I live in the valley of to mountains in Hungary. Today morning it was 3°C and now it's around 25°C. It will drop like 15 once the sun goes behind the hills. And that was just today.
I'm just going to bookmark this as inspiration for any future table top games where I start to think that modern times don't have incredibly brave adventurers taking their lives into their own hands by leaving civilization.
Even though it's not mentioned by name, it's weird to hear my small home town mentioned on this channel, based in a different hemisphere. 0:49 For anyone interested, the US town where there is a law that you must own a gun: It's Kennesaw, Georgia, the law is worded so that anyone can opt-out, all people that legally can't own a gun are exempted from the requirement, it's never been enforced, the crime rate is incredibly low, and I can tell you that quite a few of the long-time locals do in fact own a gun.
Theres a town called Churchill in northern Manitoba Canada that has a similar problem. Because there are so many polar bears around it, all citizens have to leave their car doors unlocked so people can hide from a aggressive polar bear.
Polar bears are the one of the few species the few species to actively hunt humans. That is, not out of desperation or starvation but a "see a human, option for food"
The reason that group of children got attacked and the tripwires did not go off was because they set the line too low and the bear just walked over it. A tragic case, but could of been avoided
I really appreciate these videos! Even though I know a lot of what you are saying in these videos, you make them interesting to watch. Thank you very much!
Take the polar bear and replace that with a criminal and the fact that if you do try to defend yourself, in both shooting a criminal or polar bear they'll be a long and costly court case however it's still better than having a long and costly court case long after you've been killed by either one. (I do also have to say, hearing the phrase "where carrying a gun is legally required" is one of the best sentences that I've heard).
1 problem, that criminal might not be armed, a bear is. with sharp claws and teeth. and weight's about half a ton. and has no moral ideal why it is bad to kill you, cause all it sees is food.
*Might* not be armed is the problem. You don't know. My philosophy, you should assume that every criminal is carrying an LMG up their rectum until proven otherwise, dead or alive. If they make a move like they're going for a gun (even if they don't have one) because they realize if they don't give up right now they're going to jail for a very long time, and because they think death is better than that, I am going to shoot their god damned head off. Also, you seem to think that there aren't people out there who don't have a moral ideal why it's bad to kill you because all it see's is food. All I have to say to you is "Jeffery Dahmer". You don't have to agree with me but you also don't have to take away my constitutional rights because you feel offended by my political ideologies. If you think that the government regulating more of day to day life and having no guns and having only one political ideology as law is a good way to live, here's the express ticket to a special place called North Korea! Have fun.
I believe the place in the Southern US Tom was referring to is Kennesaw, Georgia. There, every household has to have a registered firearm. Funny enough they also don't have home invasions, or robberies.
What freaks me out is that I've been looking at Svalbard on Google Maps all night for a story I'm writing. And now this video just showed up on my RUclips home page, and it turns out to be about Svalbard. If I wasn't using a separate app for RUclips, I'd think it somehow used my browser history to connect the two. But no, it's just pure coincidence. Why does this always happen to me?
if you use google chrome then google (who owns youtube) has deffinatly used your browser history to find and recomend this video, actually if your signed in on your google acc when you used google maps the browser really dosnt matter google just lists svalbard as something your intresting in and then googles formula founds hey you might wanna watch tis video. no coincidense what so ever
I have never encountered a polar bear, but from what I've been told, the shittiest thing about them is that they don't kill you first. They just start eating.
A rifle? For bears? In what caliber? I understood the standard to be a shotgun loaded with one or two shells of buckshot followed by as many slugs as will fit.
it's a polar bear, it takes more than buck shot to stop em. One was killed on the North Slope after attacking multiple people (killed 2 I think) and had like 9 bullets in it from previous encounters. Also, we hunt Grizzlies with rifles where I live. A record breaking size Grizzly was killed with a .22 once.
I've heard that bears really don't like loud noises so just the gun going off would probably be enough to get the bear running. Also that statue is quite a bit smaller then actual size. That was maybe the size of a black bear when polar bears feet are often bigger then your face and standing on the back 2 legs they can easily rest their front legs on a car roof.
That sign with the distances to major cities is really cool. There's a mural of a compass with similar distances on the floor of one of the local malls in Victoria BC that I really enjoy looking at
@@zanguusu danes have for a long time known that its more effective to address murder at the roots than to get people to deal with it last second with murder in self defense that is a concept americans have not been able to comprehend
Markus 1 - He has over 33 million youtube views, if he's earning even at as little as 0.5 of a cent per single view that's still over $150,000 made over the last 9 years. It might be more, it might be less but I'm pretty sure youtube isn't his only source of income over the last decade. 2 - It's likely tax deductible because he's made these videos as a source of income, tax deductible _vacations_ are effectively a lot cheaper than normal trips. 3 - Budget vacations to countries close by can be as little as $1-2k for a few days to a week. Just don't bring the family, don't spend your money on crap like excessive drinking, themeparks, expensive restaurants, expensive hotels. Try to save money wherever you go and only buy things you *need* instead of splurging on things you _want_. Money is a taboo subject in today's society, even more so than sex, go figure, so I doubt he's going to answer. I personally would be extremely surprised if he's earning less than $50,000 US from all his sources of income.
***** ofc ad view, not video view.. I never said its per video view i only meant to say that MOST ads are pay per click and only a few are pay per ad view
Until 2002, you were required by State law to have a firearm in your survival equipment in an airplane (along with a list of other required equipment and supplies) The requirement for a firearm was removed following the 9/11 attacks.
Having those classes everywhere would really help, they are not hard to access in the US a lot of people just choose not to learn that; but in other places it would be really useful to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to have that knowledge.
That would also open the gates to a lot of potential shootings, don't you think? The shooter would be taught how to operate a firearm and use it to their advantage in the future
@@Park_Place hiding information is no way to protect somebody, it has been proven to never work. Teaching somebody how to safely use firearms can drastically reduce accidents, and would help people not feel so afraid of them.
@@tristenarctician6910 I was just wondering. Obviously you should hug a bear, I hug my 300kg pet grizzly all the time. If it tries to bite you, you should just think to yourself: It's just hungry, it's not angry. Then everything is fine.
The town that required ownership of a firearm was Kennesaw Georgia. Had one of the lowest crime rates in the nation. 10 miles south is downtown Atlanta... a crime ridden murdering sesspool. Criminals do not like armed civilians. They avoid places where people defend themselves and instead prey on the weak.
Thank you for keeping it informational and not entering into the political arena. It's nice to have a safe haven where one can escape from politics even if but for a few minutes.
Not sure that bear's so safe. Looks like it's wearing a heck of a lot of armour.
***** Okay, that's probably enough Dark Materials references. I think I've posted one every time you've mentioned Svalbard, but it needs more publicity as they are fantastic books, and the film really was awful.
***** Give it a few years w/out any kind of rust/corrosion protection or maintenance, and it WILL be a danger. Primarily as a tetanus hazard.
that bear fighting scene was legit though
And what if it fell on you? :P
John Salter ?
"This one, obviously, not a lethal threat." *statue falls on Tom, crushing him*
It looked like it has a lot of sharp edges, too.
Final Destination 10
That’s some final destination stuff.
@@giacomorapuzzi9866 is that the show where people die in super dumb ways?
Miss Meme. You reminded me of happy tree friends, but yes it is that show.
Once upon a time every male citizen of Montenegro was legally required to own a Manton-Gasser pistol. But that was only because the king of Montenegro owned stock in the company.
Business management 101
Only a Manton-Gasser pistol? So, no other guns were allowed in Montenegro at the time other than that?
@@alexanderchristopher6237
I'm sure other guns were allowed but a Manton-Gasser was required.
Stonks
Source?
"The tripwires you placed around your camp failed to fire off the explosives"
I so badly want to believe they are more than a firecracker.
As a svalbard native I can confirm we do in fact use tripwires attached to hydrogen bombs in order to protect ourselves from bears.
More likely attached to shotgun shell blanks, cheap and easy to manufacture and reload
Chewbaccadog
Can confirm, I was the hydrogen bomb
Plot twist: They are not for the polar bears, but for the campers. So that they have a quick and humane death instead of being mauled.
Bears can't maul you if they've been rearranged with C4.
Dressing up as a polar bear on Halloween is probably not a good idea.
***** let me guess... in US?
Churchill Manitoba Canada Is on the shores of Hudson's Bay. In the fall the polar bears gather around the town to wait for the bay to freeze so they can get out in the ice and chase seals. On Halloween night all the police and conservation officers have armed patrols around the perimiter of the town looking for bears. The bears haven't eaten in months and would think a small child would make a nice meal. The children aren't allowed to wear white or be out without an adult present.
For more reason than one. It could be mating season and a male could mistake you for a potential mating partner.
One town in Alaska it’s illegal to be a ghost for Halloween
I mean. Its certainly scary, so its themed.
1:25
I love how nonchalantly you mention trip wires and explosives, like "Nah, its cool, we carry these everywhere with us"
+Connor Hill I'd got with arifle rather than a powerfull handgun like a 4 inch+ handgun chambered in .454 casull or upwards.
@Arruda you must be fun at parties
But guns, those are a big deal
Who doesn't carry explosive traps with them?
@@chillbro1010 no they carry c4
(Joke)
Firecrackers,but dangerous if they somehow go off in your pocket.I'm sure they have a very low murder rate even though guns are ubiquitous,Switzerland used to require very male between 18 and 62 to keep a rifle by the door, and they did. But in the US we have minorities that ignore all gun laws and kill each other nightly. In my town we had one murder in 25 years in Chicago the same number of people 25K, they have a murder a week. It is the people ,not the guns.
During the Klondike Gold Rush Mounties would inspect American Prospectors at the Alaska-Yukon Border to ensure that they had a hunting rifle (along with a list of other essential provisions). This was considered to be an essential survival tool not only for defense against bears and wolves but also so you could hunt wildlife for consumption.
So yes there was a time when Canadian Border Services required Americans to carry firearms with them while crossing the border.
Iain Wilson how I wish that were still true
Germans desperatly wish this was the case with the polish border xD
@@antonw-uw4ov ......actually other way......dangerous game crosses from Germany .....again.
@@stoutyyyy you can still take your guns across if you obey the law.
Things brings a whole new meaning to the question, "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?"
1) Makes a big deal about carrying guns
2) "The tripwires you placed around your camp failed to fire off the explosives" WAT
tripwires arent bombs or nades. could jjust knock a cup pff a tree to wake you up
Explosives can be very small. The jettisoning of a fighter jets canopy in the event of a bail out is done with explosives.
Ever driven a car with air bags? Many of them use explosives to inflate the bag.
Jonathan Seyfert and cars themselves are practically run off small explosions
Rockets use explosives to detach stages
You really make great videos.
Not because of a very big production value, but because of very interesting topics and the heart's blood you poor into these.
Thanks for that.
be_cracked This is actually an impressive production value for this style of videos.
TeamFlamingStones True that. But I mean like there is no big studio behind him with tons of equipment, etc.
You are definetly right though.
Most of the production value is in airfare. I love that Tom actually goes on location when lesser youtubers would talk about something they have no experience with, from the comfort of their desk chairs.
My mother was raised in several places across Alaska, including Kodiak island (home of the largest breed of Grizzly Bear in the world). For basically the reasons listed, they were required to learn how to operate a gun safely in elementary school. the lessons used BB guns (for reason I would think would be fairly obvious), but they were taught to treat them as gingerly as real ones with the understanding that, as with the video, it was for "if something has gone terribly wrong" and they had to operate an actual firearm to prevent being mauled.
smart! if a kid finds a gun they wont kill themselves. :(
BB Guns are generally used as training tools these days. Although there are still a few practical uses.
IONATVS that's exactly how most gun owners approach their own guns. The absolute last resort and treated with extreme care.
@@crossbrainedfool maybe the fact that it's got not even 1m population spread across one massive area?
@@johnperic6860 Yup. Everyone used to know how to operate common firearms. Everyone used to have easy access to them. Yet firearm violence was minuscule.
Education is the most important thing in nearly all aspects. Organized crime is still the leading cause of gun violence in the US, despite what they want you to think.
Aha! The legendary metal Bear, the last of it's kind, killed in 1984 it was stuffed and put on display. Just think, there used to be millions roaming the icy plains, now none are left alive in the wild, such is human nature.
SocksMacguffin It must've been extremely difficult for them to survive there with such stiff flesh, as digging holes, which we all know is something all hairy animales need to do. Here I am in my cave, where I found this nice boulder to dig under with tools, and I hardly ever think about how hard it is for animals like house cats and bears to dig the holes needed for survival.
Yes
It was probably a Panserbjørn
@@PeterBarnes2 ahh! But nature found a way! For the metal around the joints was like the bendy part of a bendy straw! In fact, it's where we humans got the idea!
I can hear David hayter saying "metal bear"
I'd be less interested in the gun and spend all my time with the tripwires and explosives.
stellarfirefly Pyrotechnics + Organic Chemistry = Endless hours of fun
stellarfirefly I gathered from his "if you actually kill a bear" that the explosives weren't legal. They'd probably make some cool sounds and nice colors though.
TeamFlamingStones Not grenades, numbnuts, charges triggered by tripwires/proximity sensors to deter bears and alert your party :P
TeamFlamingStones S'all good then, friend ^,^
grmasdfII So would it be like firecrackers or something?
That's... actually pretty neat.
So post-apocalypse land DOES exist. With trip wires, bombs, lookouts, guns, killer wildlife and bureaucracy.
Sapphire Crook Bearacracy
ah yes, the most post apocalyptic thing imaginable. Bureaucracy.
How is that in any possible way "neat".
Bureaucracy and cockroaches will be the only two things that survive the apocalypse.
@@sammiller2637 Don't forget the nukes!
Tom talks about guns seriously and then casually mention the *trip wires that set off EXPLOSIVES*
It's more like flares. To wake up people and to scare away the bears.
@@Tjalve70 party poppers. Dirt cheap, work a treat and take little force to set them off. I use to use them in my green house to let me know if anyone was trying to rip off my dope plants.
They are usually 12 gauge shotgun shells with no projectile (lead shot or slug)... it's not a big deal.
I love how you don't have big intros or outros, I can watch tons of your vids at once and it's great
People just have no understanding of just how dangerous bears are, if you share their territory.
The founding fathers did. That's why the right to bear arms exists. So if you see a bear you can safely go up and give them a big hug with your bear arms. Then they'll become your friend, give you some berries or fresh salmon they caught as a gift, and leave you alone.
Sadly, this part of the US constitution has been wildly misunderstood. Which makes no sense.
Funniest thing I've read all week 😂
You have gotten it all wrong, the founding fathers realized that bears wasnt that dangerous or messy, as a result people had a nasty habit of kicking them out and being mean to them, as such the founding fathers wrote the second ammendment "The Right to keep and arm Bears should not be infringed".
Well just stay out of the bears territory then! You wouldn't want a bear in your yard, so the bear don't want you in it's yard
@@UGLEIV In the name of animal conservation, I much rather support the right to arm bears instead of the right to bear arms. It's such a waste of perfectly good bears just to kill them for their arms.
There was -- until 2002 if I remember right -- a second place where it was legally mandatory to have a firearm with you by the way : it was required for all pilots flying in Alaska to have a rifle, pistol or shotgun and ammunition for same. And for the same reason as in Svalbard.
You're correct about the law, incorrect about the reason. A gun is a survival tool, and the law left it entirely up to the pilot what sort of gun would best suit his survival needs. A .22 pistol to harvest rabbits and grouse for food would have fulfilled the requirements of that law.
And now i think Air Force and Coast Guard pilots up there will carry a modified M4
Flying bears!
@@andrewalexander9492 a 22 would do literally nothing against a bear
@@KanyeTheGayFish69 I didn't say that it would. What I *DID* say, was that the reason the firearm was required was not for bear protection.
1:40
Metal Bears poop tiny cars, apparently.
Well spotted my friend
Thanks
Very mature indeed
nah dude that bear is actually a gun and Tom just got shot in the head by a tiny car bullet
Nox Shou IQ 1000
Ooh, you mentioned gun control in the US! I'm sure this will make for some very intelligent and polite conversations in the comments.
AndorianBlues Even though he was very cautious with his wording. It is a [quote] "political battleground" in the US :)
***** "republican hippes"????
Err, wut. And since when did the battle standards flip sides?
TheBluMeeny Did you take his comment seriously? Naaah you didn't, did you?
Nack Jicholson I wouldn't take anybody with the flag of North Korea in their avatar seriously.
Grindstone
your avi looks cool. What are those guys? arabs?
Just like they say: It’s better to be judged by 12 men than be carried by 6.
No it's not that's dumb
@@Tony-wm1oc You obviously don't understand what that means...
Roddy Rich is a true visionary
*Astronomia plays*
Thats why i dont play team competetive games with my friends
While this is the only place that requires it by law, it's generally good form to carry a rifle for any place significantly out in the woods where large predators are also a thing. when I lived in Georgia, boar and snakes where a problem if you went out into some of the more secluded woods. It was such that if you where out in the woods with a pistol or a muzzle-loader like me, nobody really questioned it. If you had a crossbow, though, they got a bit curious (Poachers use them).
+DFX2KX I'll note that I'd be mortified if I went to a place and actually had to shoot a polar bear. I'll hunt to get food, but having to kill a creature (four legged or otherwise) outside of that isn't a pleasant thought.
We have bears, wolves and snakes. I would never carry a gun with me to the woods. But I understand that situations are different and in the US guns are a norm...
Yup always packing on our public lands, it's not the bears or wolves I'm concerned about, it's the cats.
Which Georgia?
Sipu97 sir, that is a good degree of stupid
Kill a bear: Police have a ton of paperwork.
Don't kill a bear: Police have a ton of paperwork.
ah, bureaucracy
Police: Excuse me sir do you have a gun?
Civillian: Yes
Police: Good, stay safe. Carry on.
Police: Excuse me sir do you have a gun?
Civilian: No
Police: PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND GET ON THE GROUND!!! YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!!!
The way it should be.
Lucas Santos ok fine maybe not, but I would prefer this to our current state of affairs.
they would probably ask for your permit and if you have one but not a gun they would probably take you to a gun shop instead of arresting you
@@sammiller2637 Every child needs an AK-47 when going to school
@@spunkysamuel this ain't communist Russia, we carry fully semiautomatic scary black military grade AR-15s, capable of shooting 300 rounds a second with 1000 round clips, underbarrle chainsaws, and an infinite bullet button on the bump stock. 😁
I have been to Svalbard, the procedure the guides handled when a bear would approach us was as follows:
1. Fire a gun into the air
2. Fire a gun in the direction of the bear, without hitting him
3. Fire a light flare into the air
4. If that does not scare away the polar bear, fire a light flare in front of the polar bear
5. Only when the polar bear still approaches us, and 1-4 did not stop him, you can shoot the bear
We were lucky to see some polar bears, and they showed no interest in us.
huh....if a bear was really dead set on killing you, im not sure you'd even have time to finish step 2 before it starts going for the guts 0_0
@@Gojiro7 Polar bears don't just charge you out of nowhere. They approach you slowly. From their point of view they have nothing to fear and you have nowhere to run.
I have also been to Svalbard, and you are 100% wrong.
The actual legal regulations are mostly about the minimum caliber of guns that are deemed effective.
The "procedure" that you reference is probably just some "advice" that some tours may tell the tourists to stop them from feeling bad about the poor, delicate polar bears.
The reality is that if a polar bear approaches slowly... you may try to make loud noise in a hope that it will drive it off (if you are lucky) ... if the bear is approaching fast, or loud noise didn't work... shoot it the heart/lungs or head.
What you are suggesting is just a great way to be needlessly eaten by a polar bear.
Discharging a gun "into the air" is actually a crime, in Norway and in every other civilized country.
(It also violates one of the 4 primary rules of gun safety... ie knowing what is beyond your target... which, in your case would be "anywhere on the planet earth')
The procedure you are referencing makes zero sense.
Step 1 is dangerous
Step 2 is stupid... Do you actually think that a bear can determine the trajectory of a bullet shot towards them vs. (for example) a bullet being shot at a perpendicular angle and then make a determination about the best direction to travel? and change their escape route?
Step 3 is kind of redundant as airhorns and firecrackers are used to make load noises... shooting a flare into the air makes a slight whooshing sound and then creates a starburst or smoke depending on the flare that is used (there are also some illumination flares that drift down slowly via parachute)
Step 4 is silly... flare guns aren't designed to be used to shoot at anything other than the sky
Most importantly, and to reiterate, guns are only supposed to be fired when you actually want to hit something... not firing into the air or hitting "close to something".
@@BatCaveOz If you are out in nowhere firing a gun into the air is absolutely not dangerous. What are you going to hit? A bird? Another polar bear? This rule only applies to populated areas.
@@zagreus5773 And even then, when bullet falls it's not going to be a danger. It'll be travelling a terminal velocity, way slower than when it was fired and someone getting "hit" by it would have as much of an injury as having a small pebble dropped on them.
Isn't svalbard where they have the seed vault?
Yes
I thought that was Greenland. I guess that's just one more reason why I should visit svalbard.
guarded by bears
@@FoxDren You have to get by a whole island of them to get there.
@@Zraknul what
I don't think I've clicked on a video that was apparently uploaded 23 seconds ago. Love these Svalbard videos :)
I guess people venturing out without a gun will not be able to... *bear* it.
This one is so ridiculously stupid it becomes entertaining in an amusing way.
Oh bear
When we visited Svalbard on a sailing yacht in 2004, we were handed an old Mauser rifle from the 1930ies, that was left by the crew of a german radio-/weatherstation after the Brits drove them out.
I visited Svalbard this summer and also rented a Mauser - it literally had an eagle and a swastika engraved on the bolt
That "Litttle town in the southern U.S." is Kennesaw and I kinda live there
"Kinda"
Miss Meme outskirts probably, it’s rural so farms are considered that city bury very far out. It would be the same with housing.
@@ghostpeyton not that rural but most of the land around it is still called kennesaw
@@ghostpeyton it’s a suburban town
A really unique and interesting situation! Thanks for sharing.
78° to north and 78° in negative celsius too... with bears. What a place to live.
+Krisztián Szirtes Negative Celsius is no big deal... Now imagine going from -10 to 15 C in one day... that is Canada
+Iain Wilson Tell me more, I live in the valley of to mountains in Hungary. Today morning it was 3°C and now it's around 25°C. It will drop like 15 once the sun goes behind the hills. And that was just today.
That is common here and I don't even live near the mountains.
I love your channel Tom Scott.
I'm just going to bookmark this as inspiration for any future table top games where I start to think that modern times don't have incredibly brave adventurers taking their lives into their own hands by leaving civilization.
Even though it's not mentioned by name, it's weird to hear my small home town mentioned on this channel, based in a different hemisphere.
0:49
For anyone interested, the US town where there is a law that you must own a gun:
It's Kennesaw, Georgia, the law is worded so that anyone can opt-out, all people that legally can't own a gun are exempted from the requirement, it's never been enforced, the crime rate is incredibly low, and I can tell you that quite a few of the long-time locals do in fact own a gun.
Wait really? That's like 10 minutes away from me and I never knew until I rewarched this video
At my uncle's cabin a shotgun with slugs loaded is mandatory PPE if you go to the toilet.
Yes, these giant cockroaches in toilet rooms a nasty.
It's a mean bear that swims up through the toilet . . .
@@fiftyskoopaklub2982 slugs are the second most deadly animal so
It's great to see everyone else who is from Kennesaw (That town in the southern US) in the comments!
They probably read the title, and were like "But Kennesaw isn't an island".
Theres a town called Churchill in northern Manitoba Canada that has a similar problem. Because there are so many polar bears around it, all citizens have to leave their car doors unlocked so people can hide from a aggressive polar bear.
what a good video this is! tom you've taught me some seriously random stuff, and i thank you for it
That town in the southern U.S. is Kennesaw! Nice place, actually!
And how many crimes are here? Hardly any!
I live here
Its Ratsapple, I drive a car to work, and have never been killed in a bicycle accident!
@tripplefives Not really a small town. It grown a lot with ATL keep exceeding outward.
Seruous Crimes happen mostly in big areas
Getting a gun-related ad for a gun-related video. Yet still amazes people that already feel amazing and more all across and around the world. Amazing.
I'm getting "Borean Tundra" vibes from this place, I can picture little dwarfs carrying rifles putting bear traps around the area
The main difference is that their tripwires would be connected to actual bombs, not just firecrackers
It was a friend of mine that was seriously injured. He still has the scars on his face from the claws of the bear.
Dude are you friends with John Marston?
It's good story at a bar tho
@@krakenmetzger lenyyyyyy
@Duncan Bradford still....
I... Don't believe you
Polar bears are the one of the few species the few species to actively hunt humans. That is, not out of desperation or starvation but a "see a human, option for food"
The thing you dont think about is that, this law means tom is currently strapped.
The reason that group of children got attacked and the tripwires did not go off was because they set the line too low and the bear just walked over it. A tragic case, but could of been avoided
I really appreciate these videos! Even though I know a lot of what you are saying in these videos, you make them interesting to watch. Thank you very much!
I suddenly feel the need to move here
Take the polar bear and replace that with a criminal and the fact that if you do try to defend yourself, in both shooting a criminal or polar bear they'll be a long and costly court case however it's still better than having a long and costly court case long after you've been killed by either one.
(I do also have to say, hearing the phrase "where carrying a gun is legally required" is one of the best sentences that I've heard).
1 problem, that criminal might not be armed, a bear is. with sharp claws and teeth. and weight's about half a ton. and has no moral ideal why it is bad to kill you, cause all it sees is food.
*Might* not be armed is the problem. You don't know. My philosophy, you should assume that every criminal is carrying an LMG up their rectum until proven otherwise, dead or alive. If they make a move like they're going for a gun (even if they don't have one) because they realize if they don't give up right now they're going to jail for a very long time, and because they think death is better than that, I am going to shoot their god damned head off. Also, you seem to think that there aren't people out there who don't have a moral ideal why it's bad to kill you because all it see's is food. All I have to say to you is "Jeffery Dahmer".
You don't have to agree with me but you also don't have to take away my constitutional rights because you feel offended by my political ideologies. If you think that the government regulating more of day to day life and having no guns and having only one political ideology as law is a good way to live, here's the express ticket to a special place called North Korea! Have fun.
I believe the place in the Southern US Tom was referring to is Kennesaw, Georgia. There, every household has to have a registered firearm. Funny enough they also don't have home invasions, or robberies.
My town also hasn't, and guess what? Almost nobody has a gun
Miss Meme bear a big city?
Edit:Near
Awesome report, good research as well. Also the town in the US that requires you to own a firearm is Kennesaw, Georgia.
"The tripwires you placed around the camp failed to fire the explosives."
*_WWII flashbacks_*
Loving the series! A tad expensive to go places for a video though no?
I was looking at a job in Northern Alaska, and they asked for experience with firearms because of the bears.
Islands where guns are required: every place in Far Cry.
What freaks me out is that I've been looking at Svalbard on Google Maps all night for a story I'm writing. And now this video just showed up on my RUclips home page, and it turns out to be about Svalbard. If I wasn't using a separate app for RUclips, I'd think it somehow used my browser history to connect the two. But no, it's just pure coincidence. Why does this always happen to me?
if you use google chrome then google (who owns youtube) has deffinatly used your browser history to find and recomend this video, actually if your signed in on your google acc when you used google maps the browser really dosnt matter google just lists svalbard as something your intresting in and then googles formula founds hey you might wanna watch tis video. no coincidense what so ever
Google owns youtube, and they track what you do on their websites.
Cookie reconstitution via your IP address?
Rename this video to "the islands where there's no crime".
your videos keep getting better and better! well done mate
greetings from bankrupt Greece
Iorek Byrninson's armor is looking kinda funny today
The obligation to bear arms.
Love this series!
So they have a right to *Bear* arms?
This wasn’t funny but I blew air threw my nose
You can whack people with bear arms. We need to implement bear arm control laws. Bear arms exist only to kill living beings, for crying out loud.
Love this series tom
that rumbling you hear? its millions of texans creaming their jeans simultaneously while reading the title of this video.
'murica.
but... but this *isn't* america
xd true
Psdnmstr it's the american wet dream
As a texas, I can confirm this is true
I can say that my pants are now white
I have never encountered a polar bear, but from what I've been told, the shittiest thing about them is that they don't kill you first. They just start eating.
I think that's common when bears hunt. So I don't think it's specifically polar bears.
Was waitin' for Tom to pull out a glock
A rifle? For bears? In what caliber? I understood the standard to be a shotgun loaded with one or two shells of buckshot followed by as many slugs as will fit.
what if the bear has a gun?
it's a polar bear, it takes more than buck shot to stop em. One was killed on the North Slope after attacking multiple people (killed 2 I think) and had like 9 bullets in it from previous encounters.
Also, we hunt Grizzlies with rifles where I live. A record breaking size Grizzly was killed with a .22 once.
America: *Heavy breathing*
"This one, obviously, is not a lethal threat..." *Metal bear leaps and eats Tom*
In the uk you can OWN (not buy) a gun at 13 but have to be 21 to buy a potato peeler.
This is the consequence of invading polar bear's natural habitat
The other place where you have to own a gun is kennesaw Georgia, and I live here
Ragnar Þór Guðmundsson kennesaw, GA in the USA
I've heard that bears really don't like loud noises so just the gun going off would probably be enough to get the bear running. Also that statue is quite a bit smaller then actual size. That was maybe the size of a black bear when polar bears feet are often bigger then your face and standing on the back 2 legs they can easily rest their front legs on a car roof.
nope, the bears there dont know gun fires, and thus are not really scared of it
Americans: Pack your bags, we're heading to Svalbard
Perfect vacation spot really, seaside island, tons of sun, great SCUBA diving, mandatory rifle carrying, what more could one want?
For those curious the town in the southeast he mentions is Kennesaw, Georgia
There's actually several towns where owning a gun is a requirement (unless you choose not to), Kennesaw, GA is just the most well known.
This is a 5 year old comment
Owning a gun is a requirement unless you choose not to ... ? Isn't that a contradiction?
@@Schuyler2614 its rwuired if you c
Venture away from civilization
That sign with the distances to major cities is really cool. There's a mural of a compass with similar distances on the floor of one of the local malls in Victoria BC that I really enjoy looking at
You never fire a warning shot. You shoot to kill and never shoot at anything you don't intend to kill.
yes but the warning shots tend to work so you are wrong
you definitly do a warning shot
Tom, you are the next Stephen Fry. You are a living legend
Everywhere is a place where guns are required.
no, for example where i am, denmark, i dont require a gun
@@zanguusu if everyone in denmark had a gun, there would still be murders, try again
@@zanguusu they dont need them, they are at some % risk without it, but in a world where they we all have gums, there is still some % risk
@@zanguusu danes have for a long time known that its more effective to address murder at the roots than to get people to deal with it last second with murder in self defense
that is a concept americans have not been able to comprehend
@@zanguusu you mean all those 54 people
you would suggest arming all 6 million danes just to prevent.. what? do you think this would help?
I absolutely love this series I have always wanted to visit Svalbard :)
I thought everyone has to carry a gun and I was like: Show us your gun!
Jamie, pull up that video of the guy getting mauled by a bear.
How the hell can you offord these trips? xD
Markus 1 - He has over 33 million youtube views, if he's earning even at as little as 0.5 of a cent per single view that's still over $150,000 made over the last 9 years. It might be more, it might be less but I'm pretty sure youtube isn't his only source of income over the last decade.
2 - It's likely tax deductible because he's made these videos as a source of income, tax deductible _vacations_ are effectively a lot cheaper than normal trips.
3 - Budget vacations to countries close by can be as little as $1-2k for a few days to a week. Just don't bring the family, don't spend your money on crap like excessive drinking, themeparks, expensive restaurants, expensive hotels. Try to save money wherever you go and only buy things you *need* instead of splurging on things you _want_.
Money is a taboo subject in today's society, even more so than sex, go figure, so I doubt he's going to answer. I personally would be extremely surprised if he's earning less than $50,000 US from all his sources of income.
QuietDuplicity 0.5 CENTS per view??? you live in youtube wonderland don't you? its more like 1 for 1000 views
***** that's not how all ads work, it's true for mid-video breaks, overlay ads and skippable pre-rolls, non-skippable pre-rolls are per view
***** how about you ask some youtubers about that, cause your comment is about 6 years outdated..
***** ofc ad view, not video view.. I never said its per video view
i only meant to say that MOST ads are pay per click and only a few are pay per ad view
Until 2002, you were required by State law to have a firearm in your survival equipment in an airplane (along with a list of other required equipment and supplies) The requirement for a firearm was removed following the 9/11 attacks.
9/11 ruined everything
Why are people camping in the artic circle
Why do people camp anywhere? Because they want to...
+KoopaSteve No no no, there is a lot of people living in Svalbard including me. I moved here from Norwegian mainland
what made you pick svalbard in particular? i'd be really interested to know
SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED
Having gun safety classes in schools in the u.s would probably reduce a lot of accidents and maybe help with some self defense
Having those classes everywhere would really help, they are not hard to access in the US a lot of people just choose not to learn that; but in other places it would be really useful to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to have that knowledge.
A general understanding of guns might make people respect them instead of fear them, taking the bite out of mass shooters
That would also open the gates to a lot of potential shootings, don't you think? The shooter would be taught how to operate a firearm and use it to their advantage in the future
@@Park_Place hiding information is no way to protect somebody, it has been proven to never work. Teaching somebody how to safely use firearms can drastically reduce accidents, and would help people not feel so afraid of them.
@@Park_Place 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
This island: exists
The United States: Are you challenging me?
But why don't you just give the bear a hug instead of kill it?
Is this a serious comment ?
@@tristenarctician6910 Is this a serious comment??
@@DaanSnqn if it's not a serious comment then I should say something silly
If yes, correct you
@@tristenarctician6910 I was just wondering. Obviously you should hug a bear, I hug my 300kg pet grizzly all the time. If it tries to bite you, you should just think to yourself: It's just hungry, it's not angry. Then everything is fine.
i mean who wouldnt want to hug a big ball of fluff thats running at you with 40 km/h
i promise you will never hear of a mass shooting there.
The town that required ownership of a firearm was Kennesaw Georgia. Had one of the lowest crime rates in the nation. 10 miles south is downtown Atlanta... a crime ridden murdering sesspool. Criminals do not like armed civilians. They avoid places where people defend themselves and instead prey on the weak.
Citation needed. Also, correlation does not equal causation.
Many suburbs are far more peaceful than major cities, and a quick. Check. Of. National violent crime rates shows that.
RB01138 dude shut up. 95% of shootings happen in gun free zones
@@RB01138 many cities have much stricter laws on guns as well.
Why is this in my recommended 5 years later?
Thank you for keeping it informational and not entering into the political arena. It's nice to have a safe haven where one can escape from politics even if but for a few minutes.
Yes exactly!
Escape from politics? Lmao just close the tab if it gets politic
"Welcome to Svalbard. Here's your complimentary gun"
we have a right to.... "Bear" arms :P
It's like pokemon, but with guns
"Sorry, but you need a gun to enter the route"
WHOOOS THAT COUNTRY?????
YOU GUESSED IT! ITS TEXAS! YEE HAW
Well, you have to protect yourself from those armored bears _somehow._
Not really sure what a 10/22 is gonna do against a Polar Bear but alright
noise i guess, or a bullet in the face will still do a lot of damage.
Probably won't reply, the rifle that I seen in this video looks like a remmington bolt gun.
It's definitely not a 10/22. I believe it's a Ruger model 77 (Bolt action rifle) but I'd have to get a better look to be sure.
Three years late, but the guns are mostly for scaring the animals. One shot at them and they'll run away in fear... usually
that looks like any old bolt action chambered in anything from 5.56 to .300 winchester magnum, and i would say the latter.
Take this, it's dangerous to go alone
You received a hunting rifle