Mem Drive road rager used pipe to smash head of his opponent, but that proved a mistake because the other guy had a gun, police say

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Agreed, if the facts are as presented, the guy who got his head bashed with a pipe was acting in self defense.

I would acquit if I was on the jury.

If the guy who was attacked with a pipe violated traffic laws and co-raged/raced, that could be the basis of charges.

Otherwise, I agree that this was a valid use of a legally carried firearm and it isn't likely that charges would stick, assuming that there isn't a whole bunch of context we don't yet know (like if this started with some other sort of issue between the two parties, spiraled into road rage and lead pipes and guns, etc.).

It's takes two to tango in a road rage. If someone is going crazy, don't get out of the car and engage, just let it go.

Carrying a gun can mean a person is looking for a situation to escalate so they can use it. Just because the other guy struck first doesn't mean there wasn't a way to approach the situation differently that didn't involve two people out of their cars brandishing weapons at each other. It's hard to claim "self defence" when there was likely always the option to walk away. We can't reward aggression v. aggression by saying the guy who strikes second is always "innocent". In the long run that just encourages more gun wielding and trying to bait out aggression so a gun-wielder can have an excuse to use deadly force in response. Both could easily be culpable.

if you have a licensed gun and somebody goes upside your head with a pipe, that gun is legal to use to defend yourself.

Be careful handing out that kind of blanket advice, counselor. There are limits on the right to self-defense, a lot of factors that can come into play, and a lot of differences from one jurisdiction to another.

For example, A has gun, B has pipe. They stop to hash out road incident.

Scenario 1: A threatens B with gun. B uses pipe to attempt to disarm A. A shoots B.
Scenario 2: B threatens and hits A with pipe. A pulls gun out of car. B immediately throws down pipe and turns away. A shoots B multiple times.

In both situations, self-defense is lost. In the latter case, even if B swings first, he was no longer a threat before being shot.

There's plenty of other scenarios where it's not self-defense...in fact, just because A could have fled the fight across Mem Drive while calling for police (duty to retreat), he may have already lost the claim to self-defense even though he was hit with the pipe. Again, it would depend on timing, behavior of B when presented with the gun, etc.

Here's a whole set of instructions on self-defense from 2009 to peruse:
https://www.mass.gov/doc/9260-self-defense-defense-of-another-defense-of...

Also, the fact that there's so many reasons why it could/couldn't be self defense is exactly why the both probably face charges. Police charge them and let the DA sort it out.