To state the obvious: Keeping repeat gun offenders locked up by denying them bail — or by handing them stiffer sentences once convicted, as another important bill would do — will protect us only from the ones who are arrested. We've heard the theories behind the decline in arrests: Police are making fewer street stops because of burdensome paperwork required in an agreement with the ACLU. They worry that proactive policing could cost them their jobs or worse in what they perceive as an anti-police climate, as a white Chicago cop awaits trial on a murder charge for shooting a black teenager in 2014.