For most of us, one of the scenarios we’re concerned with is someone coming into our homes. It’s why so many of us are armed in the first place. We’ve read the nightmare accounts of people who weren’t and were beaten and tortured.

Those were the lucky ones. They at least survived the encounter.

Not everyone does, which is why millions of people buy their first gun every year. Even more are doing so now.

An elderly couple in Modesto, California is a prime example of why it’s a smart move, too.

During the investigation, law enforcement learned a woman attempted to break into the home occupied by an elderly couple by “smashing a sliding glass door with a fire extinguisher,” a press release from the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office says.

The elderly couple called neighbors for help, then “armed themselves with a firearm to defend their property, and told the woman to keep away.”

The homeowners continued to warn the woman, who kept trying to break into the home while threatening to kill the couple. It was then that the elderly woman homeowner shot at the woman. The suspect was able to break into one of the couple’s cars, where she eventually died.

Investigators are calling it an act of self-defense, which seems pretty clear-cut.

Let’s remember that there are people out there who seem to believe this couple should be dead. They argue that private citizens don’t have the right to determine who lives and who dies in such events.

Still others I’ve encountered will try to claim that it’s a matter of insufficient training. This couple just didn’t know how to deal with the threat without using lethal force. (Yes, someone actually made this argument to me, and it was someone I knew pretty well, actually.)

Others would probably think what this couple should have done is use de-escalation techniques that would tone down the situation and all would be well.

Of course, all of that is complete and total BS.

When someone tries to smash their way into your home, screaming that they’re going to kill you, you should do what this couple did. They believed her and then put her down like a rabid dog.

At the end of the day, there are two things that matter: Are you alive, and are you still free. So long as you meet those two criteria, all those armchair experts can take a long walk off a short pier.

Good on this couple for not just doing what needed to be done–after all, who might have been next–but also braving the entire California legal system in order to get a firearm in the first place. They’re alive and there’s no way the police would have gotten there fast enough to have saved their lives. Hell, even the neighbors didn’t get there quick enough.

That’s something for anti-gunners to keep in mind when they decide to lecture us about how the police will swoop in and save us if we don’t have guns.