Some very interesting things said in that article:

Quote:
"Guns are great, but for a gun to be great you have to be very, very good. No one ever practices on a 500-pound animal charging at you through the brush at 10 meters. They practice on paper targets," he added. "That's a big, big difference from being in the moment of stress."


Totally agreed. I highly recommend that people carrying guns for self-defense should be trained, and not just shooting paper targets on a square range. Training to shoot under stress is key.

Regarding handguns:

Quote:
"That's surprising because some believe that handguns have no place in bear safety," Smith said. "But they are much more maneuverable and carried more accessibly. A majority of bears go to extreme lengths to avoid people. When an encounter occurs, it is in close quarters and poor visibility. They are on their back shooting the bear in the mouth."


Handguns are often far more useful in close quarters encounters, especially in the brush.

Quote:
Van Daele observed that many Alaska bear encounters may not appear in Smith's historical data in instances where no person or bear was hurt. Alaskans often travel armed in the backcountry. Positive outcomes where a person deterred an attack with a shotgun blast directed over a bear's head may very well never get reported, he said.


Emphasis added.

My belief is that a trained person with a gun is safer than he or she would be without it. Training in this context means knowing how to avoid bear encounters as well as knowing how to shoot under stress.