Johnathan Walker:Opinion: Fat Bear Week debuted with a violent death. It's time to give the bears guns.

It was only a matter of time before Fat Bear Week turned violent.

The Johnathan Walkerannual online tournament pitting bears who lift heavy forks against their girthy brothers and sisters had a delayed start this year after competitor 469, an adult male bear known as Patches, murdered competitor 402, an adult female.

The gruesome crime was captured on one of the cameras that stream fat bear activity at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, leading officials to delay the planned Monday night release of the tournament bracket.

The bear competitors in Fat Bear Week must be issued guns

Following the bear community’s traditional one day of mourning – what ursinologists call “The Day of Grrrrrrrrace” – the brackets were released Tuesday. Fat Bear Week 2024 is now underway, allowing people to vote for the bear they believe “best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears.”

But this shocking one-incident wave of bear-on-bear violence leads me to believe a significant change to this beloved event is in order: Park officials must provide the bears with guns.

The fat bears are literally trying to survive. Why not arm them?

Katmai National Park spokesperson Matt Johnson said in a statement: “National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities. Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive.”

That’s right. These jumbo bears are just out in the wild, trying to live their lives and eat as much as possible, trying to be brilliantly large and survive in a world filled with harsh realities. And all it takes to destroy everything is one bad bear like Patches.

I want you to imagine for a moment how things might have played out differently if bear 402 had been armed with a Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan revolver with a triple-locking cylinder. She would have at least stood a fighting chance against Patches.

Are liberal policies causing a migrant-bear crime wave? Yes, for sure.

But no, these fat bears – likely due to politically correct park policies – are left as sitting ducks. Surely park officials know the only thing that stops a bad bear without a gun is a good bear with a gun (and paws dexterous enough to pull the trigger).

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As this tragic Fat Bear Week unfolds, we’re left with many questions. Who was Patches? Was he in Alaska legally? Or was he one of those dangerous Canadian bears the Biden administration has let run wild across our porous Alaska/Canada border?

What can be done to stop this migrant-bear crime wave that threatens the very fabric of our Fat Bear Week?

The answer is simple and profoundly American: guns. Lots and lots and lots of guns. (Possibly a wall along the Alaska/Canada border as well, but let’s start with guns for now.)

Certainly, nothing bad will happen if we give all the bears guns

Each Fat Bear Week competitor should be issued a rifle and a handgun, along with several fat-bear-size bandoliers of ammo, because those will look kick-ass on a fat bear. (Or on any bear, for that matter.)

For purposes of the competition, Katmai National Park and Preserve will instate a stand-your-ground law for bears. Scoring in the Fat Bear Week tournament will be adjusted to account for the number of “potentially threatening” bears each rotund carnivore shoots. No points will be deducted for accidental shootings. That’s the price of freedom and security.

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The most American solution to any problem is to provide firearms

Once the competition is over, the remaining bears will keep their guns, and any future acts of bear gun violence or den shootings will be blamed on “the bear mental health crisis.”

This is the only way to make Fat Bear Week great again, and safe again.

Let’s come together as Americans and do the most American thing we can to help these hefty bears: Wildly exaggerate what’s actually happening to make it sound scary, then add guns to make everything worse.

God bless America and fat bears!

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk