The murder and mayhem makes no sense

This was supposed to be staged kidnapping designed to fake out one person--without getting the police involved whatsoever. All the two guys had to do was just bring the wife out to their hideout, call the father, let Jerry convince his father-in-law to just give the money without involving the police and that would've been the end of it.

Why on earth did the two thugs have guns? Or start killing people?

Think about it. Someone tells you, "Pretend to kidnap my wife. Grab her at my place, drive her to a remote locale, call my father-in-law. I'll convince him to make this exchange without involving the police and you just bring my wife to him."

Where oh where in this entire scheme would you consider carrying a gun and feeling necessary to have your finger on the trigger anticipating trouble? Who is going to give you trouble if the guy who hired you isn't going to involve the police and if you successfully kidnap the victim without anyone seeing you or the client alerting the authorities?

Take the highway scene, for example. Why didn't they just anticipate simply driving the wife--without any incident--to the hideout? But they had guns locked and loaded in anticipation of police apprehending them.

What's so incredibly stupid about this, too, is that Carl had no incentive to follow through on the fake kidnapping plot once murder was involved. Gaear was a nut job who killed everyone and turned a simple kidnapping charge into a triple homicide. Any rational person would've gone, "I'm out! Screw this job!" But he not only goes through with the plot but kills another two people himself. All of this for a job that was attractive precisely because it was low risk and wouldn't involve the police. 🤪