You are mistaken if you think that only "anti gun" people prefer bear spray to guns.

I spent much of my post Army career working in the field of forestry. The nature of forestry work requires a lot of outdoor time and in the west that means that you are often in the company of bears.

Agencies that employ forestry field workers are naturally concerned that their people work in as safe an environment as possible. For this reason, most land management agencies have conducted research into the best ways to fend off bears, both black and grizzly. The result of the research has consistently shown that bear spray is more effective against bears of all kinds than are firearms when it comes to preventing injury. For one reason, guns require much more training for effective use than does bear spray; another reason is that having armed technicians and foresters in the field is a potential danger to other workers and is also a distraction from the work at hand.

Many agencies have worker training programs designed to minimize unfavorable bear/worker outcomes. British Columbia has one of the better programs. Check it out here http://www2.worksafebc.com/PDFs/petroleum/worker_training_bears.pdf Personally, I would be quite wary of any advice on dealing with bears that comes either from hunting magazines or from the NRA. Very little of their opinion is based on science and they tend to have a bit of an understandable bias towards guns.

Personally, I don't feel the need of either bear spray or armament. I have been hiking, backpacking, climbing, hunting and fishing for well over 60 years. For about 40 years I spent at least 100 days professionally per year in the field. I have worked in Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and most of the western lower 48 states. Have I encountered bears? Yes,and occasionally they were aggressive, at least to the extent of bluff charging. In none of these encounters would a firearm or bear spray have improved anything and in my opinion use of either could have made the situation worse either for me or the bear. Personally, I prefer the proven bear avoidance techniques to the more "mechanical" methods.