Five Dallas Police officers were killed, seven other officers were wounded and so was two civilians by sniper fire Thursday evening in downtown Dallas, Texas. It happened while a protest march was taken place in conjunction with the death of two men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota. The downtown area where the carnage took place is an area this writer is familiar with having traveled there for 25 years doing sales work. It is also near Dealy Plaza where President Kennedy was killed, also an area I am familiar with.
Police chief David Brown said the alleged sniper, Micah Johnson was killed in a parking lot when talks between the Dallas police and Johnson broke down. But contrary to the talking points of the NRA and their ditto heads he was not killed by a good man with a gun, he was killed by a good man with a robot that had an attached explosive devise. Dallas police to their credit would not risk their people's lives in a shoot out with sniper fire when at the time did not know if there were more than one sniper.
The tragedy is an example how sick the NRA and their ditto heads are on the "macho" statement about a good man with a gun. The good men with guns that day in Dallas could not prevent their fellow officers deaths and injuries. All gun deaths can not be prevented because there are a lot of people out there who are sick and show no outward motives. But when 40% of all guns that are sold are done through private sales that are unregulated and not registered a lot of those guns turn up in the wrong hands.
Dallas has been known for years as having a lot of extreme groups. They were out in force on that day when President Kennedy visited the city. They took out ads and had posters made up calling the President a traitor and that he was Wanted for Treason. That type of talk can set an unstable person off to do bad things. Having said that, as I wrote some time ago it was not Lee Harvey Oswald who killed the President.
There are a lot of people who say they support the police, but the great majority of police chiefs and police support the assault weapons ban and also common sense gun laws in keeping semi-automatic and automatic weapons off the streets and out of the hand of civilians. Lip service does not make the job easier or safer for the police force. And the statements by the NRA and their ditto heads are not helpful to the Dallas police officers who lost their lives or wounded nor their family who now bear the burden and the pain.
It now becomes more clear. Congress and many local governments have done nothing after the mass killings at schools and etc., and now its police officers, those who volunteer to serve and protect. Will what happened in Dallas Thursday night be enough for action to be taken or will the future be like the failed past.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
