As they curled up down on the ground shielding his wife, probably would have given him time to covertly slip his firearm out in case these thugs were going to shoot them anyway, he might have been able to send at least one of them to meet Jesus. Who knows. Hard to couch quarterback this.
Only about 1 in 10 well-trained, armed people could have reacted quick enough to draw down and start firing in that scenario. It was just too fast and out of the blue. So I agree with you.