This is the type of story the anti-gunners flock to. An argument outside of a restaurant over a parking space turns deadly. It involves both booze and guns. This is definitely an example of a time where the lack of a firearm would have probably resulted in nothing more than a case of fisticuffs and some bruises. However, as Clayton points out, this is a rare event.
As Second Amendment supporters, we have to face up to the fact that there are people out there who should not own firearms and will use them improperly. However, like freedom of speech, it is critical that you allow all the opportunity because even though you'll have idiots who abuse or misuse the right, the protections we gain by allowing them to do so far outweigh the damage they can do.
Of course, the article Clayton points to is from the Commercial Appeal, which we all know is a virulently anti-gun rag. Heck, they call a 21 and 19 year old adult "children" to make the case even more awful than it already is. Because of their bias (no link, go to Clayton's Blog if you wish to give them traffic), it's difficult to tell the true details of what happened. The way they write it, some guy comes over to some people arguing over who parked too close to what and when the argument heated back up, the guy walked to his Hummer, grabbed his pistol, and shot the guy in the chest in cold blood.
I have a feeling that there is a little bit more to the story than that, but regardless, this does appear to be a heat of the moment thing. The shooter has been charged with Second Degree Murder, which indicates there doesn't appear to be much of a reason for it to have happened.
It's going to happen. I don't know of anyone personally who doesn't think it will. But at the same time this story was put up by Clayton, his other blog, the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog has 6 stories of self defense. Those won't get nearly the same play as the other shooting, but it's critical that we continue to point out that instances such as these are rare.
Being an advocate is hard, especially when you have idiots like this guy doing everything they can to undermine reality. As advocates however, we cannot ignore these issues and lie about them like our opponents do about the benefits of gun ownership. I'm perfectly willing to accept the fact that gun ownership does not automatically equate to a perfect citizen because that's reality. I'm not, however, willing to ignore the benefit to society that liberal gun ownership provides simply because events like this happen once every blue moon.
I think that's part of what makes our side so successful.