The U.S. must unite against violence of all forms (updated)

(Comment. I'm speaking of all nefarious forms of  violence. (Last-resort self-defense might be one 'exception'.):)

"... (A) vicious, despicable, calculated attack on law enforcement..." 7/7/16 Dallas attack on police.

Add 'cowardly'.

"There's no contradiction between supporting law enforcement and working to see that biases in the justice system are rooted out..." (Link to source)

#StoptheViolence

Update: Guns. guns and more guns. More details will emerge....But in the populous U.S.A. we make it ridiculously easy for evil/'unhinged' people to be armed. In a country of 319+ million,  there will always be evil or unhinged individuals:

Totally off-the-cuff exercise: Multiply 200,000,000 (200 million people) by 1% of 1%.

I.e., for non-scientific argument sake, let's guess that on any given day in the U.S.A. there might be one percent of one percent of (a rough guess at) the age-eighteen-and-over population (we'll say 200 million) who might want to hurt others. For this quick exercise, that's 200,000,000 X 0.0001. (I.e., 0.01 X 0.01 = 0.0001.)  So, 200 million times 1% of 1% is: 200,000,000 X 0.0001 = 20,000.

Twenty thousand people (theoretically) on any day who may be a danger to others???  And a percentage of them have access to guns?? OK, maybe that's too high of a guess...or too scary of one. For off-the-cuff argument's sake, move the decimal out two more places:
  200,000,000 X 0.000001 = 200.

In this made-up but not implausible exercise that's possibly 200 people in the large, populous U.S.A. at least theoretically ("statistically") capable of malice or mayhem on a given day. This (in general, via more rigorous statistical modeling and analysis, of course) is how we should currently be thinking about guns and gun violence in this country. 

We allow 'evil' to be armed.

..How would YOU feel??↓ Always remember: Police officers were moving toward the shots/shooter...(Potentially disturbing video:)

I am so scared. pic.twitter.com/jw88QnKGXG

— Allison (@allisongriz) July 8, 2016

(No affiliation with poster.... other than I'm a human who would have been scared too.)

[Insert: BTW: It completely corresponds with Trump campaign demagoguery, crassness,  and shallowness that they allegedly tried to get a police dept. photo-op out of this tragedy: Off-site 7/8/16 article link:
 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/trump-barred-speaking-nypd-officers-article-1.2704476]


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 7/9/16 insert -- Briefly, something else to ponder: 

Details about the deadly Dallas police ambush are still coming out at this point. Apparently however, the now-known-to-be lone perpetrator was an (...likely-trained ...reportedly a 'sniper'  Update: I'm unable to verify the 'sniper' report..)... Army reservist, armed with an AR-15 military-style rifle, and had (at least) a protective vest. Plus, it's clear that he "had a plan", in advance. (7/9/16 note: I've been unable to definitively confirm the exact type of weapon(s) used, at this point..)

Also, FWIW: Reportedly, there also were around 20 people in the (civilian) protest crowd "...carrying rifles and wearing protective equipment".

Doesn't this tragedy beg a question? (Several, actually.) One (trained) guy with an AR-15 (or similar, at least), armor, a plan, and the element of surprise.... was able to kill and maim a number of armed and trained police officers..... (In the initial confusion, it was (even) thought there was more than one gun-killer involved..)


....Isn't one of the NRA/gun-nut "arguments"  -- essentially -- to allow almost-everyone to be armed with a gun? That armed civilians would be able to "stop the carnage", i.e,; shoot and "take out" the killer(s)? E.g., "good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns", etc.

Even the armed and trained Dallas police could not accomplish that (i.e., stop a killer armed with modern weaponry and an advance plan), during the initial, chaotic situation. (They did kill him hours later, after heavy losses..)

 ...Some actually "expect" amateur-civilians (often with little pertinent training) to be able to successfully intervene under similar circumstances??? (There were "twenty" (or so) of those there (in Dallas), 'dudes'..)

...Trained, armed police could not initially locate or stop a heavily-armed killer with instruction and a plan. Think about it...

(Exaggerated illustration↓, from fiction. For illustrative purposes only, not glorification (i.e., pretty much like the movie(s) did), or direct comparison.:)



(YT video link. No ownership. Language warning.)


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 "We have an incredible warrior class in this country - people in law enforcement, intelligence - and I thank God every night we have them standing fast to protect us from the tremendous amount of evil that exists in the world."

-- Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/brad_thor.html

"If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice."

--Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/learned_hand.html