“but it seems reasonable to assume that a guy who shoots his girlfriend nine times had an anger problem that had exploded “
Exactly, and if he didn’t have a gun he’d have used a knife, or a baseball bat, or a candlestick, his vehicle, or his hands.
People that are going to go off tend to do so regardless of what item they might use as a weapon is present or not present.
For many of us a gun would be the only chance we have to survive an attack by an NFL linebacker.