Thousands of bears are killed every year by hunters with no harm to the hunters.
The idea that fire arms are not effective against bears is just BS .
I seen a lot of shot with all different kinds of firearms the bears have all died.
No one said "fire arms are not effective against bears" - just that only works when you have a fire arm, and are aware of the nearby bear. Else its becomes a different story ...
Be sure you have a large enough caliber ...
I had a scary experience with a bear in an upper New York state park. My husband, 2 young children, and another couple were camping by a lake. Our food prep was on a picnic table about 25 feet away and we were by the table where we were going to eat. Suddenly we saw a black bear had grabbed a grocery bag from the other table and was starting to run off with it. My husband picked up a 4’ club (actually a small stripped down pine tree) and started after the bear hollering, “Hey, that’s MY food.” The other guy picked up a slightly smaller club and followed him. His wife grabbed the two children and headed off in the other direction. I ran to the car and pulled my 357 pistol out of hiding and ran toward the men and the bear. All the time I was thinking, how do I shoot the bear if it has one of the men down? I decided, run up alongside and shoot in his ear. Fortunately, the bear dropped the bag. We went to sleep well armed in our tents, no food inside. About 6 in the morning we were awakened by yelling. Someone had camped during the night next door. The bear had come and ripped open the shelter over their picnic table with food on it. We rolled over and went back to sleep. When we got up, those people were gone. The next day the ranger said he was just a Yogi type personality bear.