A photographer was recently mauled by a grizzly bear. But really, National Parks are perfectly safe, and what kind of fool would feel the need to carry in one:
 A man whose face was severely mauled by a grizzly in Yellowstone National Park is a photographer and author of books about grizzlies who also had been attacked in 1993. The National Park Service said Jim Cole, 57, was hiking alone, off- trail in prime grizzly habitat Wednesday when he was attacked by a sow with a cub. He apparently was carrying pepper spray but whether he used it was unclear.
Cole told rangers he walked two to three miles to seek help.
Cole, of Bozeman, Mont., was in fair condition Friday at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. He underwent seven hours of surgery Thursday to repair his face.
Remember, that the National Park Service bureaucracy respects you so much, that they are perfectly willing to risk this happening to you! I will grant that these types of encounters are rare, but it’s up to me to weigh the risk and decide which measures to take.  Not some bureaucrat in Washington.
I will not comment on exactly how much respect I generally have for the National Park Service ban, but I will say that the kind of firearms you typically need in really wild areas are not typically easy to conceal. The time has long since passed for the National Park Service to recognize the basic right of citizens the means to defend themselves in our National Parks.
There’s an old joke about that – since the victim in this case is still alive I don’t think it’s inappropriate.
A hiker is going to hike through bear country, and asks an old grizzled ranger what he should do about bears. The ranger mentions that some people carry bells to scare the bears or anti-bear pepper spray to ward them off. He then says that best way to not get attacked by a bear is to avoid them entirely.
The hiker asks the ranger how he can tell if bears are near, and the ranger says that if he sees bear crap he should take a different route. The hiker asks him how he can tell if the crap is from bears, to which the ranger responds.
“It smells like pepper and has little bells in it.”