I think a handgun can absolutely save you in a lion attack, although it may not keep you from sustaining some injuries. I knew a lion hunter who killed a lion with his pistol while the lion was biting him.
I was hiking not too far away from the attack in this article below, where a mom saved her child with a metal water bottle of all things. That same month, a lion one mountain range over chased my dog back to me while in full attack mode. The lion was so fast that I wouldn't have gotten off many shots before he got to me, had he continued on his sprint...but once he saw a large human form walking toward him yelling, he halted the attack.
Article: 02 September.
A 5-year-old Canadian boy Simon Impey was attacked by a cougar in the far northeastern corner Washington State while hiking with his parents and sister on the remote Abercrombie Mountain trail along Silver Creek in the Colville National Forest, in Stevens County, near the town of Northport, Washington.
The father Mark Impey was walking about 50 meters ahead with his 7-year-old daughter when he heard the screams of his wife and Simon. He assumed they had been stung by wasp(s), but when he ran back, he saw that a big cat had his son Simon by the head, and his wife Dawn Manning was trying furiously to fend the animal off with a metal water bottle. Dawn and Simon had been eating huckleberries and had been crouched down low. She saw her son stumble, and when she looked over, the cougar had her son's head in it's mouth. The cougar had jumped out from a brushy area and attacked Simon. Dawn's repeated blows with the water bottle finally forced the cougar to retreat into the bush. Manning said she thought she hit the cat three or four times, but her husband said it looked more like a hockey fight. Simon's face and Dawn's hands were covered in blood, so they covered Simon's head with a hoodie before heading out for help. "We were quite frightened," Mark said. "We picked up sticks, I put Simon on my shoulders, and we carried him down (to the car)."
It took about an hour to hike back to the vehicle, and Impey says his brave little boy didn't cry or complain once. Not knowing whether the cat was going to continue to stalk them made for a very tense situation. Manning said the family stayed close together and made lots of noise in the hopes of keeping the cougar away. Conservation officials, who had been hunting for the cat since the day after the attack, told Impey the cougar had, indeed, followed the family all the way back to the car, but fortunately chose not to attempt a second attack.
Once they got to the car, Impey headed straight for the nearby border crossing and the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital 25 miles away, as the family was from Rossland in Southern British Columbia. At the border station, he honked his way ahead of two waiting cars. "I got out of the car and told them it was an emergency and they backed up," he said. "I gave the border guard our passports and told him to tell the hospital we were coming, and he waved us through." Impey said relief came soon after reaching the hospital in Trail, BC. "Right away, they determined it wasn't life-threatening, and that calmed us down," he said. Simon was expected to make a full recovery. The father said, "He's happy and is being quite active and is quite calm about the whole thing."
After being informed of the attack the next day, Washington wildlife official and regional enforcement supervisor in Spokane, Captain Mike Whorton said that Washington wildlife officers were sent to the scene, and from where blood and cougar tracks were found, they began searching for the attacking cat. Department officers contacted local hunters with hounds trained to tree cougars to assist in searching for the cougar. Whorton noted that if the animal is found, it will be killed. "When human life is threatened in this way, we take no chances. Cougars that have attacked people clearly pose a continuing public safety risk and are euthanized if they are captured." Colville Forest officials said they would be posting warning signs at the trailhead where the attack occurred.
Sources: (The Spoksman-Review; by Rich Landers; 09/03/2009) (The Seattle Times; Report of cougar closes Seattle park; By George Tibbits, Associated Press Writer; 09/03/2009) (foxnews.com; 5-Year-Old Hurt in Washington State Cougar Attack; The Associated Press; 09/03/2009) (King5.com; 5-year-old hurt in Wash state cougar attack; The Associated Press; 09/03/2009) (CNews; B.C. boy recovering from cougar attack; By Sunny Dhillon, The Canadian Press; 09/05/2009) (The Record; Mother fights off cougar during attack on son, 5; same story as above By Sunny Dhillon, The Canadian Press, cited for 2nd family handout photo provided; 09/06/2009) (CBCNews.ca; B.C. boy attacked by cougar doing well; CBC News; 09/06/2009)
