So I'm chatting with Greg and he sends me a link to a story about a shooting. What makes this different is that Greg personally knows the victims

The three men, identified as Robert Latner Brown, 20, Curtis Alexander Watkins, 19, and Glen Whitestone, 18, became verbally abusive toward them and denied any wrongdoing, Cooper said.

"The victims then drove away and their car was peppered with gunfire," Cooper said.

Greg writes

Gregory says: the assailants are claiming my friend flashed a gun (he's never even owned one) and that it was a drug deal gone bad (he doesn't do drugs and makes good money selling insurance)

See, that's where you self defense whackos are wrong. Guns are dangerous. They're so dangerous that you can flash one without having one.

Luckily, the perpetrators were legally unable to purchase firearms and, as criminals are wont to do, obeyed the law by not buying one.

Brown was concealing a .9mm handgun, which had been reported stolen, he said.

I bet he had a CCW permit too!