If Chris Rabb seems overly sensitive about perceived threats of violence, it’s understandable when you hear his story.

Rabb, a first-term Democratic state representative from Philadelphia, recently accused Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of making a veiled threat against him — an allegation that Metcalfe, R-Cranberry Township, flatly denies.

So, what’s his story? Rabb shared it this week, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee during a special session on gun violence and public safety.

Rabb, a Yale graduate, college-level business instructor and father of two, said he was campaigning in April 2016 on a Philadelphia street corner when he witnessed the unprovoked, point-blank fatal shooting of an unarmed young man.

“He was shot in the head at point-blank range by another man whose gun was an extension of his wounded humanity,” Rabb said. “Someone who thought that what he needed to do on that otherwise gorgeous Sunday afternoon, surrounded by several onlookers and surveillance cameras, was to shoot an unarmed person from behind, just inches from my friend’s face.”

The murder made the national news, primarily because it involved a politician as a witness. The killer was never identified. A cash reward for his arrest goes unclaimed.

Rabb added, “Alex died instantly. His family would never be the same, my friend would never be the same, nor I.”

The story sheds light on Rep. Rabb’s motivation when he sent a letter Monday to the director of house safety and security, recounting his April 11 confrontation with Metcalfe following a heated meeting of the House State Government Committee, which Metcalfe chairs. Rabb called their encounter “tense.”

The meeting addressed House Bill 722, which originally established an independent citizens commission to redraw political districts in the state. The bill was amended after a party-line vote to take a proposed citizens committee and the governor out of the process.

Rabb wrote that at the end of the exchange, Metcalfe said “We’d have a very different conversation on the street.”

Rabb indicated this language is “commonly used as a threat of violence ... and being that it is widely rumored that ... Metcalfe carries a firearm on him inside of the state capitol complex, I take that threat very seriously.”

Metcalfe denied accusations, saying that Rabb distorted the interaction, and that “If anyone was out of order it was Rabb, who went on a profanity laced tirade,” he said. “If he was in public, I don’t believe he would have spoken in the disrespectful, profanity-laced way he did.”

In an interview Wednesday, Rabb said the exchange was “unpleasant, but low key” and while there was no yelling or cursing directed at Metcalfe, Rabb does use “colorful language” at times.

“What people don’t like is elected officials who pretend to be better than non-elected folks,” he said. “I readily admit that I use colorful language — I’m an adult. There is nothing wrong with colorful language ... but threats are a different thing.”

Even in the best of times and circumstances, Philadelphia Democrats and Butler County Republicans can’t be expected to see eye-to-eye — not that these are the best of times, or circumstances.

Remember, there was a shootout just two weeks ago on the 300 block of North Sixth Avenue in Butler. Street shootouts are considered a big-city Philadelphia thing right? They don’t happen in Butler County — let’s pray that’s not the new normal, but what if it is?

How would that realization alter the political dialogue? Maybe it’s time for a little less posturing and more cooperation.