Yes. National and State Forests they do. There is both hunting (in season) and target shooting allowed in the forest where we ride, and you can pack for personal protection.
You can't be armed in most National and State Parks and maybe (haven't checked) not in a couple other kinds of lands, such as Wildlife Refuges.
Isn't the place where you ride State Park? I though it was, and that's why they don't do any logging, even salvage and fire prevention cleanup.
No, it's National Forest. The part where they don't log or do clean up is a designated Wilderness Area, and some of it is a Wildlife Management Area, which means that they do allow controlled hunting at designated times, but it's all National Forest. So I don't understand the handgun ban. Maybe it's just our region. I don't know. We don't really have any large dangerous wildlife, like bears or cougars, but I've felt a little vulnerable sometimes when we've come up on some campers out in the middle of nowhere.