An author who wasn't there and has likely never held a firearm is offering tactical advice to a guy who was in the middle of a fight with three dogs and a crazy owner? "Why didn't you just hit him with the gun?" Uh...maybe because that isn't what a gun is for? Maybe because trying to duke it out with a guy 16 years younger who still has a small pack of dogs to help him is really, really stupid?
The author is a sneering, self-righteous jackass. Fistfights are for boys and playgrounds. Men use weapons to fight and it's for keeps. That may have no place in this guy's latte-soaked, second-guessing fantasy world but it happens to be a fact.
If you get a chance, read the statement at sentencing from Harold Fish.
You are absolutely correct in your assessment.