Virginia Driver’s Road Rage Action Illustrates a Good Way to Get Shot

Have you ever had someone point a gun at you?

While I haven’t had it happen in an act of hostility–all threats to my safety have been blunt instruments–I did have someone point one at me while being less than safe. I’m not sure what exactly it was, though my guess is that it was a 9mm. However, it looked like a 500 Nitro 10″ from my nose.

In that moment, you don’t really have a chance to break out the calipers and measure the bore diameter.

That’s why people with toy guns get shot by police from time to time.

And that’s why a Virginia driver is damn lucky he didn’t get lit up for his stupidity.

A 35-year-old man is accused of pulling out a BB gun during a road rage incident in Stafford County, Virginia.

A driver reported to authorities that they were driving on Warrenton Road near Plantation Drive on June 27 when the suspect pulled out the weapon.

The police executed a high-risk stop and found the BB gun in the center console.

The report didn’t include a photograph of the gun, so we can’t say how realistic it looked under the circumstances, but then again, unless you’re pointing it at a gun person, they’re all likely to look realistic enough. Heck, even if you’re knowledgeable about firearms it would be difficult to see the difference between a BB or airsoft gun and a real pistol when you’re driving down the road and only get a glance at it. 

And because he pointed something that sure looked like a gun, if the other driver had shot him, he or she would have been justified in doing so.

Virginia isn’t a duty-to-retract state. Someone who legitimately feels their life is in danger can use deadly force to protect themselves. Pointing a gun at someone, even if it turns out to be a BB gun, meets that threshold 99 times out of 100.

Doing anything like that isn’t cool or edgy. It’s not even a good way to make your point when you’re angry.

First, even if the other party doesn’t decide to shoot you for threatening their life–which is precisely what you’re doing, even if you’re unable to follow through–they could just as easily call your bluff and decide to beat you within an inch of your life and probably get away with it. 

Even if they don’t, you’ve still just committed aggravated assault, which is a felony. You might be able to finagle your way out of prison, but you’re still going to have a violent felony on your record for the rest of your life. If you already have a criminal record, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to stay out of prison unless you’ve got an A-lister for an attorney.

Let’s be real, most of us probably won’t have an attorney that good. We generally can’t afford them.

So on every level, doing something like this is a terrible idea.

And yet, every so often, I’ll see a story of someone doing something like this, and it’s a miracle more of them aren’t being shot by armed citizens.

Then again, if a few more were, maybe people would stop doing stupid stuff like this.