...Don't bring a pellet gun to a gunfight.
Similar thing happened in Jacksonville, FL a couple of months ago. Two young thugs came into a Dollar General store packing airguns and demanding cash. Customer on his way home pulled .45, gave them a chance to drop their weapons, and then did a Madagascar tap on the one that didn’t.
It struck me at the time that once that particular bluff gets called, there is no conceivably good outcome to holding on to the airgun. Mexican standoffs don’t happen in the real world.
“He was just turning his life around, goin’ ta go to college, ...”
And the MSM says “Why oh why are there pellet guns?” /sarc