If I had, like the guy in the story, I might never regain enough mental capacity or motor skills to be writing this. I would compare it to a military situation, or the "don't bring a knife to a gunfight" scenario. You do not attack with a weak force against overwhelming odds. I guess by your lights, my carrying a gun makes me less a man. I should leave it at home and take on the gangbangers alone.
That is not to say i would not have lost control and got myself killed. But I've already been the victim of an armed robbery at a place of employment, and a friend of mine was brutally raped and murdered. In a society that coddles criminals, one cannot wage war by the criminals' rules of engagement.
Maybe I was a little harsh.