Apr 1, 2017 3 min read

Over the past couple of decades, behavior in the stands at major sporting events has only gotten worse. Dealing with overbearing, often drunken fans has caused some people to decide they’re better off watching games at home. Sports and alcohol can be a combustible combination. The only thing that might make it worse would be if these people had guns. Of course, no one would allow that to happen, right? Wrong.

Just recently, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a measure that could allow anyone over the age of 21 who has a modicum of required training to pack concealed handguns at colleges, government buildings, bars and churches and, yes, college sports venues.

Can you imagine going into a football stadium packed with 50,000 or more people and wondering who among the fanatics might be packing heat? Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? In fact, some of the lawmakers who passed the original legislation are now having second thoughts, and a bill to amend the first measure to take college sporting events off the list is now making its way through the Arkansas Legislature.

People who support bills giving folks the right to carry concealed firearms anywhere and everywhere usually make some type of “good guys with guns” argument, suggesting that some hero with a sidearm just might prevent a mass killing by being “Johnny on the spot.” Fact is, that very rarely happens. It’s probably just as likely that one of these “good guys” might end up shooting an innocent bystander or otherwise make a bad situation worse. If there’s a shooting incident, and police arrive on the scene, how are they to know the difference between the “good” armed person and the “bad” one? It’s best to let authorities with much more training handle these incidents, and to keep people with concealed weapons out of places such as colleges, bars and stadiums.

That’s not to say there aren’t times when it is very beneficial for someone to be armed.

Such was the case recently in Broken Arrow, Okla., when a young man found himself confronted by three intruders in his home.

Police said three men dressed in black and wearing masks broke into the home of 23-year-old Zach Peters earlier this week. But Peters was ready to defend himself and his home. He opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, shooting the three teenage intruders before barricading himself in a bedroom and calling police. While we have expressed concern about the proliferation of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, people do have a right to defend themselves when they are in danger.

When the cops arrived, they found two of the would-be burglars dead in the house. Another died in the driveway after running from the home. Police say the three intruders were driven to the home by a 21-year-old woman. She’s expected to face multiple murder and burglary charges.

She can be charged with homicide because under Oklahoma law, if someone dies during the commission of a felony, all suspects can be tried for murder, even if they didn’t directly kill someone.

As for Peters, it would appear he will not face any charges. Nor should he. Police said one of the intruders at his home had brass knuckles, and another was armed with a knife. Had Peters been unarmed, his family might now be planning his funeral. And it might sound harsh, but those who apparently planned to rob Peters, and to beat or stab anyone who stood in their way, pretty much got what was coming to them.