Yeah, the show has always been anti-gun, Denny Crane is a feeble-minded buffoon who ONLY does stupid things with guns, and uses his feeble-mindedness as a defense. At least Archie Bunker was in his right mind, he didn't have to go around repeating his own name so he wouldn't forget it.
He tortured the guy in the parking lot. His actions were NOT to stop the assailant's actions, they were to cause him as much pain as humanly imaginable. David E. Kelly & Co have set the cast to make it look like well-reasoned conservative arguments are only embraced by ancient amnesiac buffoons. Maybe that's true in Boston.