You are very right, proper Bear Awareness means you may never have to use either as we travel into the wilderness. Looking for Bear Sign (Scat, Paw Prints, Scathed Trees, Field Diggings, etc.), Avoiding areas with High concentrations of Bear Signs, Making Noise as you Travel, Not Traveling Alone, Keeping good control of both Garbage and Foods are things we can all do to avoid or minimize possible Bear Encounters. 300kg of Grizzly Bear makes things like that very hard.

This article may put a smile on this complicated issue, Bear Bites Pepper Spray. In this case the Mountain Biker was in a National Park and could not have carried a gun, and would have been unlikely to have been physically able to have pulled out a Handgun after he was knocked over by the Bear. In this case his Bear Spray worked for him even when he did not have time to deploy it. Now if anyone can find a properly working firearm that can shoot the Bear by itself I will be impressed!