The tragic shootings in Baton Rouge on Sunday are yet another reminder that the second amendment, which grants Americans a constitutional right to be armed, is an extreme danger to police officers. It always was and it always will be.

The right to bear arms means that police operate in an environment in which members of the public can purchase, store and practice with weaponry similar to that of police and military. Some of this weaponry can send pieces of armor-piercing lead through whatever bullet protection police officers may be wearing. This threat makes many police feel scared for their lives.

The reasoning behind the second amendment is that it guarantees Americans the right to fight back – with arms – against a tyrannical government. But who defines what is tyrannical?

Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who led the occupation of a federally owned wildlife refuge in Oregon early this year, view government restrictions on land use as “tyrannical”. I think that the victims of police induced trauma have a clear case for being under a tyrannical occupation, too. As police officers are the enforcement wing of the government, the subjective notion of what is “tyranny” leaves them particularly vulnerable to gun violence by those who think they are just protecting themselves from an abusive, threatening government.

Police officers do not want to be the next mother or father who does not make it home to their loved ones. And many Americans, especially people of color, do not want to be the next Philando Castile or Alton Sterling. On both sides of that perspective, the fear of the gun is central.



This fear causes police to continue to be on edge. Being on edge increases reliance on aggression and violence. This, in turn, erodes police legitimacy. And an erosion of police legitimacy is, or at least can be perceived to be, the first step towards tyranny. It’s a vicious and dangerous cycle.



The Washington Post recently wrote about the strong correlation of a state’s gun ownership rates to increased police fatalities. The author of the relevant study concluded that if you care about police lives, then preventing interactions with an armed population is necessary.

Police even kill each other at alarming rates because of their fear of guns. In Baltimore, the killing of William Torbit, an officer of color, by intentional fire traumatized the agency. The killing of Jacai Colson, also an officer of color, in neighboring Prince George’s County from intentional fire is currently traumatizing that agency. In those five years since Torbit’s killing, nothing changed. These officer deaths show where Black Lives Matter and police safety intersect.

Everyone must have a personal awakening about guns in America. For me, it was the realization that widespread gun ownership meant that, as a police officer, I was tasked with killing them before they killed you.



Brothers and sisters in blue, please have a professional awakening. Tamir Rice had to be martyred for me to have mine. The moment I watched that video, I saw that the life of a beautiful gift to the world, posing no threat other than a 12-year-old’s existence, was reduced to something the politicians needed to figure out how to get past.

Tamir Rice’s name is seared on my soul. The reason? Because police hold so much fear of the gun, they perceive every encounter as being one of life and death. Good guys with guns do not stop bad guys with guns. Only ending the mad insistence that everyone can be armed can do that.