"Man, what are you doing with a gun in space?"

[funkychinaman]

Short answer: to shoot wolves.

http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0704-JULY_ASTRO

In an otherwise empty space behind the small-man cradles in the Soyuz TMA-1, there are soft-sided white bags that contain emergency supplies, including flares, warm clothes, water, and--because sometimes bad things happen--a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun. In the sixties, a Soyuz capsule landed off target, in rugged country, and after the cosmonauts inside had gathered their nerve, they broke open the hatch to find themselves surrounded by wolves, their breath turning solid in the cold. The men might have liked to run, but they could only crawl. Since then, every Soyuz crew packs a little something under the seat.