How do protective orders really help women? In light of today's mass shooting..

[agentS]

104. A gun probably would not have helped her in this case.

The shooter was off his rocker and probably would not have been intimidated by the presence of a gun, hers or otherwise.
The newspaper says she worked at the spa where the shooting took place. Would her workplace have allowed her to open carry a weapon? If so, then it might have made a difference. If not, then she would be dead while getting her weapon out of the purse or employee locker.

Having a gun is useless if you can't deploy it before someone has you in their sights.
Against a thief, sure- a thief doesn't want to die for 20 bucks. They're a bit more rational.
Against someone who wants to kill you anyway- it's useless unless they're not aiming at you at the moment. At most you'd be able to get off a few less shots than the assailant would. If both weapons are handguns, those shots can go any which ways, killing bystanders, dogs, and trees. Try finding effective cover in a mall spa- though I guess you could hide behind a fatty, but that only worked in Total Recall and Naked Gun movies.

What would have worked if the mall security had been warned about the guy before the shooting, so that way they could have stopped/apprehended the guy before he entered the spa (in violation of his DV order).

Maybe it's time to put some meat on Protective Orders. Put the person in some kinda Anger Management training for a year or so to get them to simmer down and express themselves in less aggressive manners. Make it contingent on getting the order removed. And give the workplaces heads up so they have have proper security in place.
And work on gun law enforcement- get these illegal guns off the streets so wack-jobs can't obtain them!