You are experiencing a carjacking...

[Galapogos]

I'd like for them to believe I'd shoot them to protect my car.

But I never said anything about shooting someone to protect my car.

Yes, but this choice opens up a chain of events that makes a violent confrontation much more likely than simply handing over the keys.

@Gala: Its not that simple though.

The fact is that hes using some kind of weapon and is threatening your life or your car. Supposedly, nothing happens to you if you give up the car...but you cant know that.

I guess there are obvious signs like if hes got mental health problems or you notice the gun is actually a stapler, but outside that i think itd be really difficult to rationalize that the car is his true goal and not something else.

If i was armed, i think id be looking for any moment that i could 'safely' draw and fire. My life is already in danger imo.

Yeah I'm likely over simplifying, but I was basing that on the fact that you said he's not a psycho in the question.

I think if someone comes up to me when I'm in my car and tells me it's a car jacking, I would see no reason why it wouldn't be his true goal.

If he's holding a gun to my head, yeah my life is in danger, but I'm also not going to get the opportunity to draw my gun on him and fire at that point. If he has taken his gun away, it's safe to assume it's because he's taking off in your car so your life is no longer threatened.

Lets not turn this into a "value of human life discussion" thread though. We've had that already! (PS, i push the button that randomly kills for small sums of money...and id kill for less if it was a car jacker).

Yeah, I guess it's going that way and it wasn't my intention.

[a500lbgorilla]

Yes, but this choice opens up a chain of events that makes a violent confrontation much more likely than simply handing over the keys.

You imagine having a weapon and deploying it to be risky, I don't. If I judge it to be risky, I wouldn't use it.