Cain and Abel were brothers. Would you carry a weapon because your brother was with you?
This subject comes up all the time in hiking circles and the responses are varied and usually strong. That is, from those who even think about it. Yet some writers (blogs) that I find very interesting are gun types who don't give carrying a gun a second thought, by which I mean they do carry. But they've never mentioned ever actually seeing a dangerous animal (wild or domestic) or person. And bless his heart, they've never mentioned wild dogs or feral cats. And for the record, he carried a .44 Redhawk, in addition to a rifle that had some kind of special treatment that he was proud of.
There is a minor problem here in that people who are interested in gun are as varied as the guns themselves. They have other interests, too, some related, some not. Hardly all gun nuts are hunters, nor survivalists. They (I really mean "we") are not necessarily worried about the end of the world, illegal immigrants, a government takeover of the country (??) or other things like that. They aren't all interested in 1911 pistols, real or copies, and of course, they don't all like guns with plastic parts. But some do like to hike and camp. Some care a little about other living things and don't really want to shoot holes in everything they can, living or inanimate, like road signs, no matter how much fun it is.
But I guess that was obvious all along.