Don't Bring a BB Gun to a Gunfight

He apparently thought he could intimidate people with a realistic-looking BB gun. Teen pulls a BB gun during a road rage incident and it ended in a fatal mistake with hard lessons we should learn from - NewsBreak

Even the cops treated it like a real rifle at first. It wasn't until much later they determined it was not a firearm.

What started as a late-night case of road rage in Juneau, Alaska, ended in tragedy when a 16-year-old armed with a BB gun was fatally shot. According to Nolin Ainsworth of Alaska’s News Source, the teenager was driving a 2019 Volkswagen Jetta and began following a 24-year-old man driving a 2001 GMC Jimmy. The two circled a roundabout before stopping to confront each other.

At that point the teen pointed the realistic-looking BB gun at the other driver.

Believing his life to be in immediate danger, the 24-year-old pulled out a pistol and fired, killing the teen at the scene.

How would you react if someone pointed a rifle at you?

This took place in Juneau, Alaska.

The tragedy highlights an unfortunate reality – fake guns can get you killed. As Ed Combs and Kevin Michalowski of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) pointed out in their analysis of the case, the reasonable-person standard in self-defense law is there for situations like this.

“If you are a responsibly armed citizen and someone pulls out what reasonably appears to be a firearm, you are compelled to take action to save your own life,” Michalowski explained.

The shooter was released, because self-defense is a human right.