As violent crime continues to dominate so much of our headlines, it’s important to remember that the good guys are still out there. While the police are being vilified and certain parties make it clear they want at least some of our guns should they win come November, there are still good guys out there.

In particular, there are good guys with guns. That’s a fact that a lot of emboldened criminals seem to have forgotten.

Two learned otherwise the hard way.

The Des Moines police have identified the teenager who died in an early morning shooting on the city’s north side. Police said the shooter acted in justifiable self-defense.

Officers were dispatched to the 1400 block of 13th Street, between Clark Street and Forest Avenue at about 5:45 a.m. The caller reported that he had been approached by two armed teenagers who attempted to rob him and he shot them in self-defense, according to police.

The two attempted robbers were a couple of 16-year-olds, one of whom was killed. The other was wounded.

The armed citizen was apparently unharmed and will not face charges.

No matter what else is going on in the world, there will always be those who fancy themselves predators. They think to make their way in the world by preying on others rather than, you know, getting a freaking job or something.

Honestly, these two scumbags got precisely what they deserve. Well, one did. The other survived.

Meanwhile, make no mistake. These two will be treated as victims of “gun violence” and held up as some kind of standard, like we should pity them. While I might feel some pity for the dead one’s family–losing family is horrible for anyone regardless of the reason–I don’t feel bad about the wounded one in the least.

Look, no matter how you cut it, these two got what they deserved.

As a result, at least one won’t be trying to hold up other people until someday he ends up shooting someone who is a little too slow handing over their money. The other one has a long recover ahead of him, a recovery where he can rethink his life choices and decided to become a better person before he ends up like his friend.

Unfortunately, I suspect society will be too preoccupied in holding this punk up as some kind of an object lesson on the evil of guns and not really allow him to see that his injures were practically self-inflicted.

As the wise man once said, “Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’.”

Phrased another way, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Frankly, with violent crime soaring in recent months, what we need are more armed citizens like this. If a few more of these thugs ended up shot, you’d start to see the crime rates settle right the hell back down. It’s one thing when gangs are killing one another off, but it’s quite another when they’re trying to hurt innocent, law-abiding people along the way.

These two got precisely what they deserved.