Yes, depends where you hike
To the best of my knowledge, the only places you find grizzlies is the northern Rockies and AK. In the Rockies and in AK, bear cannister policies have been in place for a long time, and there are few, if any, habituated problem grizzlies. Grizzlies prefer to eat roots and berries, although they are opportunistic. The vast majority of maulings (of which there are VERY few per year) with grizzlies occur when a person or very small group (1-3) either surprises a bear by accidentally sneaking up on it, or inadvertantly comes between/near a mother and her cub. Even then, attacks are very rare, particulary if it is a group of 4 people or more. The Kodiak brown bears are quite different, as they eat mostly salmon, and the protein diet makes them very large, say 1200-1500 lbs, (grizzlies weigh in around 400-500 lbs). Interestingly, the browns are generally much less aggressive than the grizzlies, as they are constantly hanging out together near the river to catch fish, and they socialize better. The grizzlies don't have quite the same manners because they must maintain a much larger territory in order to get enough food. Consequently, they have a reputation for being more aggressive. The long and short of it is, however, that browns/grizzlies probably aren't going to look at you as a food source, and you'll only need bear mace for the very rare surprise encounters.
Almost all "problem" bears are black bears. In Yosemite they have learned to break into cars if they smell food. Unreal. Although black bears are much smaller than browns/grizzlies, they have become habituated to human food sources to a much greater extent, and consequently they are a much bigger problem. If you consider the damage that a large, mean dog can do, an animal that's 3 times that size can certainly inflict plenty of damage if it wants. The problem took many years to develop, and it's going to take many years to fix, probably several generations of bears. The solution is for people to be careful with their food, and not leave a mess. Bears in CA will need to be retrained to seek out their own food, and this is going to take a long, long time. In the Northeast, there isn't a problem yet, and maybe now is a good time for a bit of an educational campaign if bear sightings are becoming more common.
As for firearms, I think there are very few places where you can legally carry one into the back-country (it is illegal in Denali NP and Glacier NP), and the idea of buying titanium utensils in order to shave half an ounce, then packing in 10 or 15 or 20 lbs of shotgun and shells is just weird. Kind of like getting 3 Big-Macs, a large fry and a diet Coke. Personally, I prefer to find a way to hike safely in bear country, minimize my chances of a negative encounter, and accept that I'm not the biggest, strongest thing in the woods. I'm comfortable with that.
ba