Yes, this actually happened.
During an amateur Brazilian soccer match, players got a little too aggressive with the match official Gabriel Murta, but to their surprise, he simply was not in the mood for taking shit from anyone that day. The referee, who works as a policeman during the weekdays, decided the appropriate response was to run to the locker room and pull out his gun.
Although from a distance the situation seems completely insane, amateur soccer in Brazil has seen some pretty gruesome violence in recent years.
In 2013, a referee stabbed a player to death on the field and was immediately killed by a mob of fans that displayed his dismembered head in the stands. In comparison to that mess, the more recent incident doesn’t seem so bad. Soccer is a wonderful sport, but unfortunately episodes of violence permeate it, especially throughout Latin America.
Murta will have to undergo psychological therapy if he wants to ref again, since his license is currently suspended.