Brian, You have to go on the best information you have in order to make quick decisions in what you may consider to be a life-theatening situation. It does not have to be a rifle in order for you to think it is a rifle. Try pulling out a toy pistol and pointing it at a cop at a traffic stop and see what happens. Didn't Dillenger break out of jail once with a bar of soap carved to look like a pistol? How many quicky-marts have been robbed by some dude with nothing more than his hand placed in his pocket to look like a pistol? Does the law treat that dude any different than it would if he really had had a pistol? (Perhaps some of you legal eagles can answer that last question.) I wonder what type of reaction you would get if you were to take a stock-mounted scope to a fence near an airport runway and use it to look at landing planes. Take a book backpack to that same airport, put it down in the lobby, and walk away. I dare say it will cause a stir even though it is quite harmless. We often must act on what things appear to be rather than what they really are.
