Well, it is easy for all of us to read this situation and tear his tactics apart while sitting comfortably and reading about it. The fact is what he did worked this time.
As for responding with a firearm, that would seem the sensible thing, however that does not guarantee success. There are trained officers killed in the line of duty while toting a belt full of equipment including batons, firearms and lights.
Your wife may very well have started to panic, but at least she did think to get on the phone and get help on the way, very smart.
Your wife should have left and called the police while on the move. However, many people have not played out various situations ahead of time in thier mind and have not planned well for surprises. You guys were lucky and can now use this as a lesson. Another thing is she may simply have known to leave, but could not bring herself to leave her husband to face the danger by himself, good intention if not smart. It is something you all can discuss in detail, that it would be better if she got away to safely call for help.
As for the suggestion above about maybe firing into the air, that is movie stuff. Remember that what goes up (bullet) must come down (possibly on somebody not involved) and you are responsible for every bullet that you fire.
As for using deadly force, justified or not, you will most likely end up in court anyway. The best thing to do is find out laws in your area. In many places there are things considered implied threats. The guy doesnt have to tell you hes going to kill you, you simply need to decide very quick if his approaching you is to scare you or hurt (or kill) you. Only you were in a position to decide that based on all his actions, we can only guess by reading.
You know how it is when you are not doing much, you begin to think about little things just to keep you brain working or whatever. Use some of that time to think through bad situations and what you may do if something happens. For instance people think about what they might do if somebody began harrasing them on the road. You think, dont lead them to your house, lead them to a well populated area and keep an eye out for a police car. So when that really happens, you react with your plan, you dont panic and drive straight home.
Bet ya thought I was not going to bore you with a story of my own /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
One night my wife and I went out to dinner. We were driving home about 1030pm. For absolutely no reason I could think of a car roared up on us, went around us and slammed on him breaks while flippin us the bird. I managed not to hit him somehow. I could see about 5 people in the car (probably teen-agers trying to show each other how macho they were). They continued to follow and harrass for several minutes while tossing pop cans at us. My first instinct was to try and get them to pull over and see just how tough the little punks were. However common sense prevailed. I took into account that we were in a large pick-up truck and they were in a small car. Any attempt by them to actually try and stop and block us would have been futile. I did have my knife and a maglite in the truck so we may have not been totally helpless (or they may have had a gun and we would have been in deep trouble). I continued driving until we spotted a police car at which time I turned to follow and started flashing my hi-beams and honking until she stopped. Naturally the guys continued on. By the time the cop finished asking us questions (and treating us like we were bothering her) the guys were long gone. She did nothing with the tag number we gave her. The point is we got out of the situation without a fight. I had though about these situations before and when it happened I followed my plan.
Anyways, very glad you made it out ok.
Note: My ramblings above are just my opinion, I am not military, lawyer, "tactical dude", or writer for a gun rag. Take it for what its worth.
