Continuity mistake: When Dr Sobel is eating a dish of spaghetti in the restaurant, there is a dish of plain lasagna in the foreground. When Paul Viti's cousin arrives and the camera pulls back, the lasagna has melted cheese on top.
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Chazz Palminteri is in his office talking on the phone, a microphone appears a couple of time at the top of the screen.
Continuity mistake: In the big shootout at the end in the car park the huge machine gun fires into the warehouse leaving some bullet holes in the large corrugated door. In the next, wide shot of all the families running around in the warehouse the bullet holes are gone.
Chosen answer: That's how he dealt with facing certain death and then not being killed. Some would be silently grateful as you suggest, others wouldn't. Everyone reacts differently.
Captain Defenestrator