Detectives determined that a fight broke out after one of the two 17-year-old males pulled a gun on the man. During the scuffle, the man shot both teens, Steele said.

The man called police and attempted to give medical aid to the teens, but both were pronounced dead at the scene. Officers found an illegal ghost gun — a firearm assembled from a kit that lacks a traceable serial number — with an extended 30-round magazine nearby, authorities said.

While most Democratic politicians in Pennsylvania will point to this and say “see, we need to do something about those darn ‘ghost guns,'” what this incident really shows is that its critical that more people take responsibility for their own safety and protection. We don’t know for sure how these 17-year olds got ahold of the gun they used in their robbery attempt, but we’re hopefully all well aware that simply banning home-built, unserialized firearms isn’t going to prevent those with violent intentions from illegally acquiring a gun.

The pair in the Philadelphia suburbs weren’t the only robbers to suffer fatal consequences for their bad decisions this weekend. One of two would-be robbers in Frankfort, Illinois was shot and killed after he and his accomplice decided to hold up a bar with fake firearms.

The WCSO said two armed men wearing masks, gloves and hoods went into the bar around 3:15 a.m. demanding money from patrons. The armed robbers threatened to shoot all of the patrons and employees if they did not comply with the robbers demands, according to the WCSO.

It was later discovered that the guns used by the robbers were “replica firearms,” similar to airsoft guns, according to an update from the WCSO. One of the replica guns was found near the body of the dead robber, and the other was found in a parking lot outside of Ryan’s Pub, according to the WCSO.

A patron in the bar was also armed and shot one of the robbers several times, according to the WCSO. The other robber fled the bar on foot into a nearby vehicle, which sped away heading eastbound on U.S. Route 30, according to the WCSO.

The robber who was shot was pronounced dead at the scene by Frankfort Fire Protection District, according to the WCSO.

The second robber was able to flee in his car and so far has not been arrested, though police say they have surveillance video and eyewitnesses that can hopefully lead to his identification and arrest.

Then there’s this case out of Chicago, where CBS News reports an armed robber was shot and killed on Saturday afternoon.

Chicago Police said the 32-year-old man started talking with two other 32-year-old men as they walked to their vehicle in the 1500 block of East 95th Street around 3:45 p.m.

Those two men got into their Volkswagen SUV, but the man talking with them got in the back seat, got out a gun, and announced a robbery. He then struck one of the men in the head with the gun.

One of those men got out his own gun and shot the man. He was struck in the forehead, leg, and chest, police said.

Some reports indicate that police took one man into custody, but I haven’t seen any specific charges announced. It could be that while the shooting itself was in self-defense, the armed citizen did not have a FOID card or a concealed carry license, which would open him up to felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon.

Criminals can strike whether you live in a big city or a small town; you could be walking back to your car or enjoying a night out at your local watering hole when you’re confronted with a life-or-death moment. Having a gun available to us in self-defense is no guarantee that you’ll walk away from the fight, but I would much rather face an armed robber with a gun of my own rather than be empty-handed if I’m the target of violent criminals.