Using Knockout Gas On An Entire Restaurant/Pub

[Randoman]

I really didn't know where to post this thread, so I figured General would be the best place for it. By the way, this is a serious thread, since I'm asking this question for story writing purposes.

Anyways, for a story I'm writing, there's a crazy bar fight that goes on in a restaurant/pub, with heroes/police needing to come in and stop it. One of the heroes/police has a device that can shoot out essentially infinite amounts of knockout gas (with the hero himself being immune to the knockout gas). However, not everyone in the bar is fighting, and there are quite a few innocent employees that are just taking shelter and trying to stay safe from the chaos. As a hero, would it be acceptable for him to douse the whole place with knockout gas and knock out the innocent employees as well, or should he not resort to the knockout gas and resort to his other weapons instead? For reference purposes, the knockout gas itself doesn't harm its victims at all or cause any sort of long or short term health damage.

[eclipse]

The question is, WHY is this necessary for the hero?

If you want to explore the morality of it in your writing, go for it.  But as a plot device?  It seems a little cheesy.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Narrative Answer: Knock-out gas doesn't actually exist, and because it's this sort of blanket solution to any room full of people issue, I don't really recommend its use. #I'mNotAWriterThough

Ethical Answer:

On 8/11/2018 at 5:34 PM, Randoman said:

For reference purposes, the knockout gas itself doesn't harm its victims at all or cause any sort of long or short term health damage.

Well like why not then? Assuming there's some pressing issue it seems like a fairly harmless solution, all things considered. That's also kind of why I don't recommend the use of it in the narrative, it's kind of an obvious solution to too many problems.

Oh wow I didn't notice how old this thread was oops my bad probably not important at this point sorry.

Edited August 28, 2018 by AnonymousSpeed