When RCMP officers arrived at the parking lot of the Whitehorse liquor store Monday to respond to a call for back-up, they were operating on the assumption they were going into a high-risk situation.

The call was initiated by a report from a citizen who saw a handgun being passed around a car parked off of Quartz Road at about 3:30 p.m., but once police arrived, the vehicle was gone.

"To the person driving by or walking by, it looked like a bit of a hand-off,” RCMP spokesman Sgt. Don Rogers said of the report.

An hour later, an officer spotted the vehicle outside the liquor store.

Three more officers were called in to assist and they cautiously approached the vehicle.

In a press release issued this morning, police described the incident as a "high-risk takedown.”

The officers did not draw their weapons, Rogers said.

The four people in the vehicle "immediately co-operated,” the sergeant said.

They emerged with their hands held high and quickly explained the weapons they had were pellet guns, not firearms.

Officers confirmed that the two handguns and the rifle found in the vehicle fire pellets, not bullets.

"It's not illegal to possess the pellet guns; you don't need a (licence) because they aren't a firearm,” Rogers said.

However, there is still a considerable concern associated with the weapons, he added.

"They can be used in hold-ups or home invasions or intimidation,” he said.

"Not only that, but if the police were to stop somebody ... and they pull out a facsimile of a weapon and it appears to be real, then tragedies occur.

We want to avoid that.”

The men in the car are not being accused of using the weapons for illegal purposes, Rogers said, but they were warned not to bring the pellet guns into public view again.

"The weapons seized were very realistic and pose an immediate threat when viewed by unsuspecting members of the public or by the police.”

Two of the 19-year-old men in the vehicle have been charged with breaching a court order that prohibits them from contacting one another.