I saw an episode of Longmire, the A&E show about a Wyoming sheriff the other day that got me to thinking about an idea I've pondered many times. Sure, just a TV show but one of the values of such dramas for me is the way it enables you to think in advance of how you might handle a similar sort of situation, sort of a vicarious learning.

In the scene, a street punk, slightly nutty, had surprised in a back room the Nat. Am. character who runs a bar. He locked the door and had a gun pointed at the guy's head about 6 inches away. A minute later, the perp went over to a desk to look for something and briefly looked down. The captive, Henry, played by Lou Diamond Phillips tried to rush him, the guy lifted the gun with 'uh-uh-uh,' at which point Henry stopped.

I've often thought that if it looked like you really might not come out well in the end, the thing to do would be to lunge your arm upward knocking the gun away or at least away from your head and wrestling like hell with the guy to get it away. Reflexes are such that unless you're old and infirm you're likely to push the gun out of the way before he can pull the trigger, if he's right next to you that is. Several feet away, much more likely he could shoot before you get to him.

This business of thinking that you'll be OK if you comply with the armed person's wishes might not be sound. The notorious and bizarre case of the Goldmark family murders in Seattle in '85 is a cautionary tale. The nutball Rice used a toy gun to bully the family of four into submission, tied them up, chloroformed them into unconsciousness, and bludgeoned and stabbed them to death.

David Lewis Rice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not trying to diss Mr. Goldmark, more trying to learn from his experience. If someone cares little enough about your life to threaten you with a loaded gun (Rice's gun was apparently very real looking and plenty such characters use actual guns) why would you assume that they will be kind and merciful if you comply with their wishes?

I've never been threatened with a gun and chances are good I never will be but it does make you wonder. I don't want to be overconfident but I'd hate to squander my one chance at a good outcome by meekly complying with some scumball. Overconfident in that I think my reflexes/speed of movement are pretty good. I used to regularly whoop people in the various hand-slap games but I'm not as young as I was then.

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