Fear the Cougars or Fear the Guns?

It’s a tough question for Jack Mowers, and his young sons’ lives figure heavily in the equation: How does he feel about some of his fellow bike and hike enthusiasts carrying handguns for protection against mountain lions?

The thought that either of his sons, Trent, 3, and Zack, 4, could be accidentally shot is so painful he winces, unable to finish his sentence. On the other hand, if one of his sons were ever in the grip of a 90-pound cougar, he would want every advantage in saving his child.

It’s a question that Mowers, 39, has yet to resolve, and it nagged at him Saturday as he and his sons stood at a Whiting Ranch trailhead only yards from a memorial to the victim of a fatal mountain lion attack.

“I wouldn’t like a lot of people carrying guns,” on the trails, he said. “Are they all trained, licensed?”

But he added, “I have these two kids and I don’t want mountain lions preying on them, so I have trouble with what I believe.”

After two attacks by a single cougar at Whiting Ranch in January -- when cyclists Mark Reynolds, 35, was killed and Anne Hjelle, 30, was seriously injured -- hikers and bikers have been rethinking weapons in general, and during bike rides and hikes in particular.

They are asking for Mace or pepper spray at bike shops, clipping knives onto their belts and carrying big sticks.

“A lot of people have come in looking for Mace,” said Paul Shelton, manager of Supergo Bike Shop in Laguna Hills. “We don’t carry it.”

And in some cases, they’re packing heat.

Last Wednesday, a jogger on a Modjeska Canyon trail who encountered a mountain lion pulled a handgun from his backpack.

David Cody, 25, an Air Force Reserve pilot who said he started carrying a handgun on his jogs after the January attacks, didn’t fire but said he had a better chance of survival if the cat had attacked.

He backed away, dialed 911 on his cell phone, and was picked up by a police helicopter about 10 minutes later.

Jon Arnold, 52, a retired police captain, routinely carries his handgun when he bikes canyon trails.

Although he carries one, Arnold said he is against other hikers and bikers doing the same. “Most people aren’t trained in how to use a firearm,” Arnold said. “They run the risk of shooting themselves or someone else.”

David Arnold (no relation), 33, of Foothill Ranch, said he is worried about “the nut out there who will shoot at everything he sees.”

Canyon trails are part of a vast wilderness that throughout Southern California just beyond the last development. Deer, coyotes, bobcats and mountain lions roam these canyons, and encounters with wildlife are inevitable.

Mountain lions move mostly during the late hours or darkness, and sightings are infrequent, wildlife experts say. Attacks are rare.

“There’ve only been 14 attacks on humans by mountain lions since 1890,” said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. “And six of those were fatal, so mountain lion attacks are very, very rare.”

In the foothills of the Cleveland National Forest, just across Santiago Canyon Road from the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, hunters and sport shooters are common.

“My game wardens out in the field expect that people have weapons,” said Steve Edinger, an assistant chief for the fish and game department. “Ninety percent of the people we come in contact with have weapons,” he said.

In national forests, people are allowed to carry handguns in the open, with or without a permit, Edinger said. But in state and county parks, possession of a firearm is illegal, Edinger added.

Because mountain lions are a protected species, they can be shot only by a person in imminent danger of attack, Edinger said.

But with the freedom to carry guns in federal forests, and more of them on canyon trails after the attacks, national forest visitors say the chances of something going wrong are up.

A firearm “could go off when they’re running or walking,” said Tina McKean, 33, a graphic artist from Fullerton, who said she thought it was “incredibly stupid” to carry one.

Yet Daegen Kluxdal, 34, of Aliso Viejo said that if Reynolds had been with someone carrying a gun, “He may have saved his life.”

And that’s how the opinions were flying back and forth Saturday.

“I probably wouldn’t [carry a gun], and I wouldn’t want to run with someone who is,” said Ben Gonzales, 34, of Aliso Viejo. “It’s scary, more than a mountain lion.”

His pal Todd Muilenberg, 34, of Lake Forest, carries a knife and said “I’m done” if a lion were to attack. “But if it got Ben or someone else, then I might have a chance to do something to help.”

Carrying a gun may give people a sense of security, but its value is questionable, said Grant Curtis of Share, an Orange County mountain bike club.

“If you are carrying a firearm, it may be too late before you can get off your bike, pull it out of your pack, and use it against a cat,” he said.

“It’s more effective to become the aggressor in the situation. Pick up a rock and throw it at the cat. Make yourself look bigger, try to intimidate it.”