Just out of curiosity, do you ask yourself when you get into a taxicab "do I want to be one of the four hundred people a year killed in taxicab accidents?" (I believe that's just in Canada; the number for the USA is probably ten times that.)

You are at least 400 times (maybe even 4000 times) more likely to be killed by the simple act of getting into a taxi than you are to be killed by a bear. Yet how many people lie awake worrying about having to take a taxi to the airport in the morning? If they do, they're more worried about missing their flight than they are about being involved in a fatal traffic accident.

Statistics doesn't work the way you seem to think. Nobody has handed out lottery tickets to everyone saying "If your ticket has this number on it you are going to be eaten by a bear." It's just a way of assessing the relative probabilities of different events - for example, the probability of being eaten by a bear, versus the probability of shooting yourself in the head with your own gun.

If you walk through the woods with a loaded gun that's primed and ready to fire, I consider you irresponsible. (Disclaimer: I'm a Canadian, have never owned a firearm, and have only once fired a weapon outside of my military training.) Carrying a firearm that could go off if you trip over a tree root or step in a gopher hole is, IMO, a recipe for an accidental shooting.

Otoh, an unloaded gun is of very limited value for self-defense against a charging bear; you're likely to be far better off using it like a club (in which case, I'd personally prefer to have a club <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) From what (little) I've read on the subject, most bear attacks are the result of (a) blatant stupidity (e.g the woman I once saw getting out of her car to take a close-up photograph of the cute little bear cub); (b) mutual surprise; or (c) photographers (and possible hunters) who are deliberately trying to conceal their presence in order to avoid scaring off photographic subjects/game. In none of these cases is an unloaded weapon likely to be of any use. (I've read that a disproportionate number of bear attack victims are nature photographers, who are deliberately trying to make as little noise as possible; few, if any, of these victims even manage to get a picture of their attacker, indicating that the attacks happen with devastating suddenness.)