Every so often, someone with a pellet gun gets shot by police. They pointed the gun at law enforcement and law enforcement responded accordingly.

This is often met with activists and the media going on about how it was just a pellet gun, there was no threat to the officers or anyone else. It was just a glorified toy, they’d argue.

Except, as we can see, a pellet gun can be used to kill a lot more than small animals.

North Carolina woman was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting her cousin with a pellet gun.

After responding to reports of shots fired at a residence on November 2, authorities discovered 42-year-old Christopher Joe Pearce lying in the yard suffering from a wound to the upper chest.

Officers performed life-saving measures but Pearce was pronounced dead at the scene. His cousin, Rachel Ferguson, 23, was arrested according to the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office.

Although many believe airsoft and BB guns are safer than firearms, ballistics expert Leonard Romero told Newsweek this is not the case.

There have been enough deaths at the hands of bb and airsoft guns that the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning about the high-velocity weapons. According to the CPSC, about four people are killed by BB guns every year.

They may not be as lethal as a 9mm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re safe.

Pellet guns are weapons. Yes, they’re lower-powered weapons, but they’re still weapons. The fact that they can be used for hunting should be all the warning some people need to respect these as if they’re full-fledged firearms.

“But you don’t need a background check for them,” someone will quip, and I’m sure someone will try and argue that you should need one if they’re that dangerous.

That’s carrying the concern a bit too far if you ask me. Yes, they’re dangerous, but despite being more easily attainable, they’re still only used to kill four people per year. Part of that is because people may not know they can be used to kill, but part of it is simply that while they’re dangerous, actual firearms are moreso.

My point, though, is that when the police react to a gun pointing at them, people need to stop pretending that just because it was a pellet gun, the cops or armed citizen was somehow out of line.

Especially since there’s really not much chance they recognized it as a pellet gun in the first place.

Yet even if they did, we can see lives can be taken with these weapons. They can be used to murder people, which means they represent a very real threat to human life.

If faced with that, why would someone not assume their life was in danger? Doing so would be a good way to end up dead yourself.

In such a case, well, I’m very much in the “me” camp on the “them or me” debate. I don’t blame others for doing just that. It’s what sane people do.