A 39-year-old man is behind bars and facing criminal charges after he was shot by a legally-armed citizen during a road rage incident in the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts that was apparently sparked by a dispute at a convenience store.

According to authorities, Anh Kieu originally pointed a revolver at another individual inside the store last Wednesday evening, prompting the customer to flee the store and hop inside his friend’s Nissan. The driver tried to leave the area, but Kieu allegedly followed them as they sped through town before he eventually caught up to the Nissan.

Police said the Nissan eventually made it to the intersection of Pearl and Central streets in Stoughton, which is where witnesses said Kieu’s vehicle crossed the double-yellow line into the opposite lane of traffic and pulled up to the Altima. Witnesses told police that Kieu pointed a revolver at the four occupants of the Nissan.

The driver of the Nissan, whom police said has a valid license to carry and a properly-registered firearm, yelled for his friends to get down. Police said that the man driving the Nissan fired seven rounds into the Cadillac because he was “fearing for his life,” and that one of the bullets struck Kieu.

Police said the Nissan then fled the scene and Kieu continued to follow them in his Cadillac. The driver of the Nissan told police that he remained fearful of Kieu and continued to speed, which ultimately led to the crash at the intersection of Plain and West streets.

Amazingly, when police arrived on scene, they discovered that Kieu’s “revolver” was actually a pellet gun. If the account by police is accurate, not only was Kieu a moron for whipping out his pellet gun at the convenience store, but reached new heights of idiocy by chasing after the man after he left the area. I’m not sure what Kieu intended to do after he pulled alongside the Nissan and once again pointed his pellet gun at the four individuals inside, but it was this escalating series of stupid decisions on Kieu’s part that led to him being shot. Lucky for him he survived his encounter with this armed citizen. Now we’ll see if the courts offer any additional consequences for his alleged criminal actions.

According to police, Kieu was arrested on Saturday and was arraigned in court on Tuesday. Based on local media reports, it sounds like the legally-armed driver wasn’t arrested at the scene and is not currently facing charges. Hopefully that remains the case even in a state as hostile to our Second Amendment right to armed self-defense like Massachusetts, because Kieu clearly intended his victims to believe that he was pointing a real revolver at them. I’d say the driver was entirely justified and well within his rights in responding to what he perceived to be a deadly threat by using deadly force of his own to protect himself and his three buddies. The armed citizen even tried to remove himself and his friends from a dangerous situation, but when Kieu chased them down and pointed his gun at them, the driver had little choice but to draw his own gun and fire in self-defense.

Hopefully the local prosecutor reaches the same conclusion, but given the anti-gun attitudes of so many elected officials in the state we’ll be keeping a close eye on any updates to this incident. While those politicians have tried to chill the right to keep and bear arms in Massachusetts they haven’t eradicated it completely, and I’m glad there are still armed citizens out there exercising their Second Amendment rights on a regular basis.