Bill, what if someone stole a gun shipment heading to your local Wal Mart and sold a few pieces to those criminals? A gun won't be much help then and those criminals will make quicker work of you that way with less effort. Beating or stabbing me to death will cause a lot of commotion and take a lot of time (enough for a LEO or a good samaritan or 10 to jump in) compared to shooting.
If we invest enough into:
1) Reduction of poverty
2) Policing
3) Fighting addiction
4) Mental health infrastructure,
guns will become obsolete for personal protection. However since you started with the horror stories, here's a couple..
Joe just pulled a 13 hour shift dealing with disgruntled customers, came home and put away his gun into...
1) The drawer of his night stand. As he was dead tired, his kid snuck into his room, started playing with the gun and shot himself.
2) A gun safe. Armed intruders got into the condo and shot him in the back as he was trying to open the safe.