Jon:

Neither your nor anyone else's comments I believe have been 'self-important' in this discussion. Having hiked a trail, spent nights in a tent hearing those strange sounds outside in the dark, gives us that egocentric attitude toward this misguided individual who fortunately no longer is a threat to anyone on a trail or in a tent.

But when I think of the two people this man killed in 1981 -- that was 27 years ago -- were you born then? -- and the two he hurt but didn't kill recently, and then I put that against the number of people in the Miami area who were killed by robbers at fast-food restaurants or at home sleeping in the past couple of years -- say, the last 3 years -- well, seems like I should be much more paranoid waking up here tomorrow morning knowing that probably 20 or 30 times as many have died in the latter endeavors -- ordering an Egg McMuffin or sleeping in bed in Miami, than hiking/camping in a tent in a National Park, and should realize that my time in the wilderness is INFINITELY SAFER than walking around here in this urban-crime-zone, defined by the local C-of-C and Visitors Bureau as a chic and cool place.

For those rare, freakish incidents when a psychotic killer heads into the wilds, I'm still not sure a concealed weapon would be of ANY help.