HOW WE SEE IT Give Police, Firefighters A Pat On Back

Friday, December 28, 2012

When Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend to death then killed himself Dec. 1 outside the Kansas City Chiefs training facility, no one could have imagined the month would become a fl ash point for violence involving guns and the debate over gun control.

a man shooting up a mall in Portland, Ore., killing two people before killing himself as police responded.

Then another man brutally murdered children, teachers and others in Newtown, Conn.

And just a few days ago, two fi refi ghters in Webster, N.Y., died as they responded to a house fire intentionally set to draw them into the sights of a shooter.

These were horrible events all. The killing of the two firefighters prompts us to pause and consider what happened in every one of these situations: Regular folks who chose careers as firefighters and police officers charged in, ready to face danger in the name of protecting others.

The debate over gun violence will rage, and it should. When a nation or local community experiences such tragedies as these, the only right thing to do is to explore ways to make them less likely to happen. Despite what we all wish, we cannot eliminate all violence. But the question remains about what we can or should do, and that will take a long time and political courage to fi gure out.

The key to finding solutions is the availability of services to identify and provide services or treatment for people with serious mental illness issues. It is not difficult to believe any one of these shooters might have been turned away from violence at some point in their descent into sociopathic behavior.

But today, our focus is on the responders, because it is with awe they should be viewed.

Who runs toward the gunfire?

Who hops off a truck ready to battle a blaze everyone else is rushing to escape?

Every time in every community, there are men and women who are driven to face oft against the people who would do others harm. Whether it’s in a traffic stop or racing into a building to prevent whatever bloodshed they can, they set aside their fears and risk life and limb because communities need protection.

In a perfect world, there would be no gun violence. Falling short of that utopia, we wish it were possible to post trained and committed police officers in every school. It’s a dream solution because of the costs, but they have demonstrated time and time again their presence fends oft those with violence in mind, either by convincing them to give up, by prompting their self-infliction of wounds or by storming them to end the rampage. If there was a consistent presence in schools, perhaps it would also ward vendors of violence oft entirely before they had an opportunity to inflict damage to youngsters.

We can’t solve gun violence with a few words on a page, but we can express our admiration and appreciation to the men and women who defend our communities against the forces of violence. We need them, and thank goodness we continue to have community warriors step up, ready to fight the good fight if it’s brought to our community.

Wherever this debate goes, we’re comforted police officers and firefighters are ready across this country to stand strong on behalf of citizens.

They cannot be thanked enough.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/28/2012