What is the meaning of this lyric from Passenger's "Fairytales & Firesides"?

Question

Here is a link to the song:

The second line of the second verse is, according to the internet and my own ears:

We're the shaking gun in a service station line

You can hear it in the video at 50 seconds in.

I've never been able to understand this line. According to dictionary.com a "service station" is just a gas station or similar establishment. I don't see any relationship to guns there. Is there another meaning to one or more of these words- or perhaps an idiom somewhere- that I'm just missing? Or a reference to some cultural or historic event?

Answer 1

I think it's common for robbers to go into gas stations to "hold them up" at gun point to steal money. So I personally think he is referring to the "shaking gun" of the robber that is about to rob the store.

Answer 2

The image this gives me is of the gun-shaped gas nozzle being shaken to get out the last few drops of gas (aka "petrol") as someone is filling their tank --maybe to the annoyance of the person waiting.

Answer 3

Most (maybe all?) the images in the lyrics are of broken, battered, desperate, on the edge of loosing everything people. And dogs, and inanimate objects too, for that matter. So I think "shaking gun in a service station line" means someone who has been knocked around over and over, and has now decided to do something completely mad. They've decided to rob a gas station, probably in the middle of the night, with a gun they are still concealing. The "shaking" could mean it's the first time they've sunk low enough to actually go through with the idea.

I think it's one of a number of ugly references to people that have become something base and desperate, presumably out of necessity and are scrapping to survive.