• Shayeta@feddit.org
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    15 days ago

    Threat that comes from pointing a gun at someone mostly comes from the body language and the facial expression of the shooter, knowing what a gun does empowers the threat, it doesn’t truly create it on its own.

    Someone who doesn’t know what a gun is could definitely infer that it is a weapon, and that they are within its effective range. All that JUST from the body language of the shooter.

    • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

      But I think it’s as likely they might think it’s a device held to be magical. And then it all depends on how effective they expect it to be.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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        15 days ago

        Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

        Pliny, as an extremely well-educated man, actually wrote a bit on chemical and incendiary weapons at the time. So while the notion of the chemicals being a propellant would be foreign to him, a warning shot from the smoke-and-thunder tube would probably give him a good basic idea of what he was facing - a machine that inflicted some form of harm via a projectile accompanied by fire and chemicals.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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        15 days ago

        Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

        Pliny: “Fascinating! May I see it? I’m interested in this machine’s functioning!”

        Me, overwhelmed by the interest of such an illustrious scholar: “Oh, of course!”

        Pliny: “How does it activate?”

        Me: “You just point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger, which launches the projectile.”

        Pliny, pointing the pistol at me: “You are going to help me rescue Pomponianus.”