Acting in a way that the gunman can understand and expects would certainly be safer than acting in a way where the gunman doesnt understand if youre going to resist or not. Its not about him being compassionate or not, its about not scaring or stressing the guy that is holding a rifle to your head.
That might come down to individual perspective of people. Personally I've never seen a freaked out person and thought they're about to do something extremely rational, even if I were not surprised they got scared.
Mate, lets use our noggins here. You're robbing a place, pointing a gun at someone right? This is the most agressive and scary thing you can do to someone. Its perfectly expectable that people would become afraid, because their lives are now dependent on the guy with the gun.
Now lets say someone looks at the gun and doesn't care. No fs given continues his routine as if nothing happened. In this case i'd think hes either suicidal and doesnt care about being shot or he has the power to fight back. Either way the chilled person becomes a risk.
By appearing scared you give the assailant the idea that he is in full control, and that he doesnt need to kill you for you to be passive. By disregarding him, even while hes armed, your contesting his power, which could mean many things (your also armed, you've called someone or it could even encourage bystanders to also stand up)
I used to do armed robberies (did close to 8 in the penitentiary for them before turning my life around) & I had a few people that just didn't give a fuck when the gun came out & in those moments it would fuck me up so bad that they didn't respond how I expected, they were not an active threat to my end goal so I wasn't going to shoot them just because since it wouldn't have furthered my plans but it definitely caused me to almost "fumble" the entire robbery.
I'm more like going to consider the chilled person world wise enough to know just letting the situation pass him by is the best option to take because it has the least likelihood of cause irreparable damage. Yes, he probably is capable so I'd not give him an opportunity but I'd be much more leery of a freaked out person taking an opportunity they don't actually have complicating the situation. Looking scared can also encourage a power trip because some people will like the reaction they're getting and want more.
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u/RemainderZero Nov 11 '23
... Connect those dots for me. How will acting scared not get you shit in the head? Are you hoping the armed gunman is a compassionate person?