Threatening with any firearm could land you with a felony charge

Within the past few weeks, eastern Idaho has seen two major standoffs between an individual and police. In both cases, police responded after neighbors called feeling threatened. Also in both cases, the men who threatened their neighbors did so with a simple BB gun. Now those men are facing aggravated assault charges, which is a felony.

The reason they face felony charges deals more with the manner in which they threatened people, and less with the object they used to threaten people. “If someone believes that another person has an actual gun and their about to commit some serious bodily harm, injury, or death to someone else, and if they use some sort of deadly instrument, even if the firearm is unloaded or doesn’t work anymore, they can still be charged with that felony,” said Sgt. Bryan Lovell of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Department.

Lovell said ultimately the prosecuting attorney decides, but reiterated that the manner in which someone threatens people can make a difference, even if no lethal weapon was involved.

Lovell said police take every threat seriously, as they often don’t know what the weapon is until after the situation is resolved. “Everyone needs to understand that law enforcement is going to treat that as a real situation until we get over that safety boundary, and everybody’s safe, and we’ve either secured everybody or made sure their is no real threat going on,” said Lovell

One of the challenges police and regular people face is knowing if a gun is an actual high-powered weapon, or a simple BB gun or pellet gun.

“Sometimes its very difficult to tell the difference,” said Steve Zimmermann, a retail manager at Guns and Gear in Idaho Falls. “There are manufacturers out there making guns that look very very similar to the actual firearm. Even down to the same branding and stuff.”

U.S. law requires that toy guns have an orange marker on the barrel to let people know the gun isn’t real. BB guns are not considered toys so they aren’t required to have any kind of markings.

“That’s why it’s always important to make sure you’re maintaining those firearm safety rules,” said Zimmermann. “You’re going to treat it like its a real gun all the time, even if its as simple as a pellet gun.”