If you have a tenth as many bears as we do, you'd want something bigger than a handgun. And I'm sure you have problems with two-legged critters back east. About twenty years ago, one of my former colleagues had his daughter kidnapped by two self proclaimed "mountain men" who wanted to make her their communal "bride." They killed her companion and shot her. She was just out running and enjoying the woods, unarmed.

Since you can't outlaw bear claws or mountain lion fangs, and since both of them view you as food, and since human outlaws don't give a damn about what laws you have, you should consider making it simple for peaceable folks to be prudent. I don't go in to the woods without a gun any more than I'd go in them without water.