Here in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park they allow conceal handguns. My dad has a conceal license to carry here in Tennessee and I'm thinking of taking the class just for fun. If I carried in the Smokies, it will be a small 9mm. It won't stop a bear, but I'm hoping firing the gun into the air will scare it off. Assume in this situation the bear is popping his jaw at me, bluff charge, etc. I wouldn't fire the gun off if the bear ignored me and went back to munching on the berries. I would just simply keep going about my business peacefully. On the other hand, scaring off a black bear the old fashion way has been working for me and there only been one bear attack that resulted in death in the last 12 years within the GSMNP boundary. There has been a couple attacks that resulted in injury, but the average is less than one a year. Keep in mind the GSMNP gets 6 millions visitors a year!!!!!!!