Yes, it sucks that this guy got hit with a two-by-four. The punks involved will be punished. Nobody's making them into saints.
But if you're not quick enough dodge a wooden plank being swung at your head, then I fail to see how you're going to draw your faithful Smith & Wesson (carried, of course, in Condition 1) and ward off three attackers.
Does it really make you feel safer to know that any garden-variety mugging/altercation/yelling match could quickly escalate into homicide? I've been mugged -- pistol-whipped, in fact. In my experience, you don't see these things coming. Having a gun would have made the situation infinitely worse.
I am not against others owning guns. I'm jealous of all you Upper Peninsula outdoorsmen; I hate how hunting gets folded blindly into anti-gun rhetoric. But sometimes it sounds as if the guys who are packing heat are the least likely to ever find themselves in a situation when they need to be.