Seventeen-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani bought a BB gun from a Big 5 Sporting Goods store. It was defective, so he was going back to the store with a friend to return it. That’s when 51-year-old Aaron Brown Myers saw the boys, rushed out of his car, and pointed a real gun at the teens. Myers claims he thought the teens had two guns, which is altogether irrelevant to his defense, because the teens promptly put the air pistol down on the ground, raised their hands in the air, and repeatedly told Myers that it was a BB gum, not a real gun, apparently to no avail.

Surveillance footage from the store shows Rohani had his hands up when Myers shot him 7-times…six of which landed in the back, since the teen turned to try and run away from the lunatic who was shooting him. The boy called out to his mother as he fell.

King County prosecutors charged Myers with second degree murder, saying he “attacked three teenagers who had not committed any crime,” and that “at every stage of the interaction chose to escalate with more and more violence.” My question to the DA is this: Why only second-degree? What is the difference between this and someone picking off teenage girls in the park, who would be certain to get life in prison, if not the death penalty? If someone kidnaps and murders a child because their brain is messed up and entertaining sadistic fantasies, we hold them fully accountable. But if a gun owner murders a teen because their brain is messed up and entertaining violent fantasies that don’t exist, we’re inclined to let them off light, and sometimes don’t even prosecute at all.

If gun owners want to play make-believe gun hero in their own mind, so be it. But when they start endangering the public with their delusional fantasies, they should have to pay the same price anyone else would pay for such a crime, not receive a “get out of jail early” (or sometimes free) ticket just because in their own delusional brain they thought they had a reason to commit a murder.

Maybe Myers is stupid enough that he legitimately saw a threat in two unarmed teens with their hands up, and is too stupid to understand English, since the boys told him it wasn’t a real gun. Or maybe Myers just wanted to feel the thrill of shooting someone. Either way, there are hundreds of thousands of more Myers-in-waiting lurking out there, and next time they might be coming for your child.