Bears and Backpacking

My main problem hiking and camping has always been bears. I've always been scared of bears, and I always end up by myself. I'm slow so I hike by myself; because I'm slow, I'm the least sore at lunch and dinner so I go get the water, again by myself; I set up the tent while my dad fires up the Firefly (our camp "stove"), the camp is usually closer to the woods, by a long shot. So, I spend a lot of time alone and my dad and I only have one bear bell between us. I love our bear bell but it ends up on my dad's pack a lot somehow, even though I'm the one that's always alone. It does work. I don't know if it was a bear or what that I scared away, but I have scared away some big stuff with that bell. Plus, it ensures that you don't startle the animal. So, what if I'm sans bear bell or the bear bell pisses the bear (or large cat) off? Like the posts I was reading yesterday, the chances of startling a bear or large cat are really slim but I want to be able to ensure that I can keep myself and my loved ones safe. That said, I'm an average height but slim girl. That means I don't have a lot of strength to defend myself from a bear nor do I have the height to threaten a bear. Last night, I was looking at knives. I'm aiming to get two 4" blades that I can strap to me when I hike. Besides defense, I could use a knife to open stuff and cut stuff off me (what stuff gets on me? Oh, just loose threads, stuff like that). Would a 4" knife do anything to a bear? No, probably not. Just piss it off more. But I'd feel safer with a knife and a bell. My boyfriend and I were discussing getting a gun last night. I'm not old enough to get a concealed license, apparently, but I could get a general carry license so it would be his gun until I'm old enough. I feel like a gun would be much more use in keeping me safe, especially since I'm going to live alone for awhile. Not that our apartment has a history of bad things, but the last thing I would need is for someone to break in and hurt my cats. So, yea, a gun is a good idea, in my opinion but there are huge problems. You have to get the gun (which is really expensive), you have to get the license (making sure you have the proper licenses for each state you're in), and you have to be able to keep up to date. Oh, and you have to be able to shoot. I'm not a bad shot, especially considering how severely astigmatic I am, but I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting if there were other people in range, no matter what.