As far as I can tell — without being an actual lawyer — it seems that having a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI as his wife says on the newly released video) does not bar you from possessing a weapon under federal or North Carolina law. Since we are relatively sure Mr. Scott is also not a convicted felon ordinarily barred from firearm ownership, he has just about every right to have a gun on his person as long as he uses and carries it responsibly.
This is unfortunately a typical case where 2nd Amendment carry rights and law enforcement meet with tragic results. Because if we assume the gun “found” on the scene is in fact his, and if he was legally cleared to own a gun, then his having a gun does not automatically make him any of the various things the usual crowd is going to say about him after being fatally shot by police. We only know he was sitting in his car and was accosted by a plain clothes officer, who conveniently enough did not have a functional body camera on at the time of the encounter. I am perfectly fine with him having a gun if it indeed is his, as long as we get whatever other video the police have to prove he used it both incorrectly and illegally in such a manner that he actually *WAS* such a threat to them they had literally no other choice but to fire. From the number of shots fired and how close the officers were to him, I’m personally skeptical of this claim as I’m sure we all should be.
However, if it’s also true he was suffering from symptoms of TBI and not on his medication at the time, the police will have doubly used excessive force. Once by shooting a man in the midst of a medical episode, and once again by closing him in during his episode and shouting at him from various angles. For someone who might be in the throes of an episode that could make them act erratically, they should have called in a medical specialist rather than their marksmen...