What is 'armed robbery'?
A common action shown on television and movies, and used in real life, is to use a gun, and point it at someone's head, and then make demands, such as, "Put a hundred grand of unmarked bills in this bag." This is known in legal circles as 'armed robbery', and can lead to heavy punishment. (I highly discourage you from doing this.)
What if someone is just starting out in his criminal career and can't yet afford a real revolver? Historically, some folks have used a toy gun, or carved a realistic gun out of wood, or stuck their hand in a paper bag or their pocket. This has worked very often. Seldom will a victim challenge the robber, saying, "I don't believe you have a gun. Or, if you do, I don't believe it is loaded. Shoot me first and prove to me that you have a gun, that it is loaded and you know how to use it. Then, if you do that, I will comply with your demands"
The reason that faking a weapon has often worked in armed robbery is that the weapon is seldom actually used, beyond the point of brandishing. (It's still called 'armed robbery', even if the gun is never fired.) It is the FEAR that makes the method work, whether the weapon is actual or fake. It is the fear of injury that makes the victim comply with the man with the gun. It's not the actual use of the weapon, but the fear that it will be used. Because of this, it is only necessary for the robber to convince the victim that he has a weapon and can and will use it, it is not necessary to actually have a weapon.
This works on one person. What if someone wants to rob the entire population of the earth? How might they go about that? "Well" you say, "To do that he would need a weapon that could potentially kill everyone on earth." And I'll say, no he wouldn't: He would only need to make the inhabitants of the world THINK that he has the capacity to kill them all.
"Oh, come on." you say, "This is starting to sound like a James Bond movie." Well, maybe Ian Fleming knew something that you don't. What if I were to tell you that this robbery has indeed occurred already? That the world has been held in terror for over fifty years under the threat of a weapon that exists only in science fiction?
"What weapon is that?" you ask.
Nuclear weapons.
