By Andrew Hay

(Reuters] – Travis McMichael was a defendant at the Ahmaud arbery murder trial and claims he used firearms training to fatally shoot the Black man, 25 years old. Many U.S. gun instructors disagree.

McMichael said that Arbery was “backing off” because he used his U.S. Coast Guard training. Reuters interviewed gun experts who said that McMichael violated a fundamental principle: Never point a firearm at any person, and certainly not shoot them, unless there is imminent danger of bodily injury or death.

Rodney Smith is the CEO and director for training at Georgia Firearms and Security Training Academy.

McMichael further testified that Arbery never threatened McMichael verbally, or used a weapon against him.

McMichael is 35 years old. His father Gregory McMichael 65 was a former officer with the police and an investigator for the local district attorney. Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan 52 has pleaded not guilty.

The two men claimed they were not guilty of jumping in their trucks and following Arbery as he ran through their predominantly white neighborhood in Georgia. McMichael, the younger of the two defendants, was the sole one to testify. McMichael, the younger of the two defendants, testified that he shot his pump-action gun at Arbery at close range in self defense. He also claimed Arbery had taken his gun.

The Arbery case where the jury was to start deliberations Tuesday and the Wisconsin murder trial against Kyle Rittenhouse, which ended Friday with an adjudication, revolve around arm-waived white men who claimed self defense in front of almost all-white juries.

Reuters spoke with around a dozen gunsmiths, instructors and gun shop owners. Some people saw similarities.

Michael Cargill suggested that Arbery be seen in the same light as Rittenhouse – a man who is afraid of his own life.

Cargill, 52-year-old owner of Central Texas Gun Works’ firing range and gun shop located in Austin, Texas, stated that the cases were the same. “Kyle Rittenhouse wanted to flee from the people who tried to kill him. A rifle was his weapon of choice and he used it for self-defense. Ahmaud was trying to escape from those who wanted to kill him. He didn’t own a gun. He was gunned down and killed.”

Rittenhouse is charged with killing and wounding one man during the racial justice demonstrations held in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. Rittenhouse claimed that he was there to defend property from the protests. He was called a hero by supporters for his justified shootings, while opposition members claimed that he caused violence by setting a rifle on people.

Clifford Wallace (36), said that both cases demonstrated the importance of verbal warnings prior to pointing or discharging firearms.

It’s not possible to shoot you just because you seem like a threat. You must be imminent. “I have to be aware that you are a danger,” Wallace said, the owner of Democratic Arms, a firearms retail, training and manufacturing business in Berrien Springs.

Louis Evans, 75, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy and owner of Evans Security Training & Range in Compton, California, took issue with the defense argument that gun safety protocols were followed in the shooting of Arbery.

They did everything wrong. “People who don’t follow the law, they broke everything,” Evans stated about Bryan and McMichaels.

Cargill stated that if Americans supported Rittenhouse they should also support Arbery’s murderers.

Cargill explained that “both cases are identical, and you should look at them in the same light.”