Youth Sports, Angry Parents, Guns: What Could Go Wrong?

I don't know where to start for this one.

You just KNOW someone is going to wind up shot and/or killed eventually.

So, every year we hear of asshole parents of kids who play sports making the lives of the kids that just want to have fun a living hell. These parents yell at coaches, beat up referees, get in fights with other parents, and just generally behave really really badly.

So what happens when guns are added to the mix?

So the summary of the following story is thus:

Parent does not like the fact that his son isn't eligible to play football. Parent confronts coach and verbally abuses them. Parent's friends then show up, threaten coach with a gun, and then proceed to beat up the coach. Coach's wife pulls gun she's carrying concealed and fires into the air to scare them off. Coach goes into his own car and gets HIS gun and begins waving it around randomly.

Ah, concealed carry laws.

So what prompted this? A league rule that says you can't play for a new team until you return the equipment from the old team. Evidently this kid was a "problem child":

The player was with the Tigers for about one week last season before he was removed from the team for what Burris called “a character issue.”

Family members played loud music and cursed loudly during practices and were a disruptive presence, he said.

The league’s code of conduct stipulates teams can be removed from the league for repeated occurrences of behavior such as misconduct at games. The code of conduct also sets out expected behavior for parents, coaches, players and spectators.

The player in question has recently played for three different teams in the league.

He played with the Tigers for one week last season, joined Saints for the rest of the 2013 season and then joined the Cowboys for the 2014 season, Burris said. But the boy was not allowed to play last Saturday because he had not turned in his football equipment to the Saints after last season ended.

So the parent decides this particular coach is the problem and then proceeds to confront him. As these parents always do. Loudly and with lots of cursing. Police are called, witnesses are interviewed, and the police leave.

Shortly afterward, a group of men ask which coach spoke with their relative. When the coach is pointed out, one lifts up his shirt to show the gun tucked into his pants. Then about five or six men begin to beat up the coach. One man is reported to have used brass knuckles.

Seeing this, the coach's wife pulls out a gun and fires a warning shot. The coach breaks free and goes to his car where he gets HIS gun and begins pointing it randomly into the crowd.

The attackers have fled by the time the police arrive. Naturally. The guns are confiscated and are used as evidence.

No arrests have currently been made. Police are still looking for the attackers.

The coach and his wife have been relieved of their duties with the team.

Both the coach and his wife have valid concealed carry permits.

The league director says the coach has been involved with the program for over 15 years and has been a "great role model".  

Still, he says, you can't bring weapons out around children.

The league says it prides itself on zero tolerance for these kinds of shenanigans. Which is why the boy in question was released from a team last year and the coach was dismissed.

So, how long will it be before someone actually gets shot at one of these events?

I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.