Why was Joshua Tree hiker carrying a gun?

Am I the only person who doesn’t understand why a guy hiking with his girlfriend in Joshua Tree National Park felt the need to carry a gun and bullets?
Yes, there’s much weirdness about what authorities now call a murder-suicide after finding the bodies last month of a young couple who disappeared in the middle of summer.
Yet one of the strangest things is that a congressional bill regulating credit cards made it possible for the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Joseph Orbeso, to legally