All signs point to the fact that the horrific killing of five Dallas officers was motivated by hate. Not just any generic hate — hate specifically directed at law enforcement officers.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown explained that the killer was moved by a desire to "make us [law enforcement] pay for what he sees as law enforcement's efforts to punish people of color."

On Monday, President Barack Obama compared Micah Johnson's shooting to the Dylann Roof shooting in Charleston; both, he argued, were hate crimes. In fact, Obama said that if the killer were still alive, he would be prosecuted for a hate crime. For years, law enforcement organizations have pushed for police officers to be included in hate crime protections.

And this week, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced that he would introduce legislation today to create a new federal crime for assaulting, killing or attempting to kill a federal judge, law enforcement officer or public safety officer.

Cornyn noted, "The Back the Blue Act sends a clear message that our criminal justice system simply will not tolerate those who viciously and deliberately target our law enforcement." Cruz said, "This bill better protects our nation's finest by providing stronger tools for the prosecution of those who would harm law enforcement."

I appreciate Cornyn's intentions and agree that the killings were inexcusable crimes motivated by hate. But killings are already punished under the law. Cop killers are already punished severely — and rightly so.

Under Cornyn's proposal, a killer would be subject to the death penalty and a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years. Attempted murder would have a minimum sentence of 10 years. The Back the Blue Act of 2016, co-sponsored by fellow Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, would also open up grant funding for opportunities to promote relations between law enforcement and their communities. And it expands the self-defense and Second Amendment rights of officers, allowing them to carry firearms into federal facilities and other places where guns would otherwise be prohibited.

In Texas today, some cop killers are sentenced to life in prison without parole; most are put on death row until they are executed. (While I am opposed to the death penalty in general, you won't hear me complaining much about these executions.)

Considering the severity with which cop killers are already sentenced, it seems unnecessary to demand additional mandatory minimums, as Cornyn has proposed. We don't need to provide "stronger tools for the prosecution." Our criminal justice system, even without the proposed legislation, already does "not tolerate those who viciously and deliberately target our law enforcement."

After the tragedy in Dallas, the number of police officers who have been fatally shot so far in 2016 is 44 percent higher than it was at the same time last year: 26 officers have been shot and killed on duty so far this year, compared with 18 at this point in 2015.

Again, the death of one single law enforcement officer in the line of duty is one too many. Five deaths in one night is especially horrific.

But it's important to put these deaths in context, to remember that there are more than 900,000 law enforcement officers serving in America.

Between 2000 and 2009, an average of 57 officers were killed by gunfire each year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 2015, 42 officers were killed by gunfire, down from 49 in 2014. Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina, told NPR that 2013, with 27 officers killed, "was the safest year for police officers, ever. The safest year in recorded history."

Although we're seeing more officers shot and killed than we have in recent years, the numbers are still significantly lower than they were decades ago. In 1973, for example, 156 officers were shot and killed.

Cornyn's desire to look for solutions in the face of Dallas' tragedy is admirable. But this particular solution misses the mark.

The Dallas Police Department is an integral part of our community. We can appreciate and admire that the DPD consistently goes above and beyond without instituting unequal punishment.