I talked to two state cops at the gym this morning about this post and both said "if someone's shooting at me at 50 yards and I don't have immediate cover, I'm shooting back". I totally agree with them; if someone is shooting at you from a distance and you don't have any immediately available cover and nobody is next to your assailant, why would you want to be a sitting duck? If it happens to you, let us know how it works out.
As I said, in my state, the laws are set to come back in our direction. For the record, I work with police and a sample size of two isn't enough to generalize to the rest of the world. Basic statistics.