Our county recently released video from an officer-involved shooting. Totally justified. The woman had fired a round from her shotgun, it was on the ground in front of her with officers ordering her to stay away from it, and she lunged back for it, resulting in the police shooting her. She died. It was hard to watch, and the shooting was justified. When I saw it, the first thing I thought was how incredibly brave the police were to run into that situation, knowing a person was armed and threatening to shoot them (and in fact, had already shot at them). I tried to imagine the amount of stress and adrenaline involved in that situation. Whether I could actually put myself in their shoes or not, I know what they went through was awful. Not one of them put their uniform on that day thinking they would have to kill someone. But they did--and they were doing the right thing--and very bravely. Thank goodness for that bravery.
At the same time, I worry that we, as a people, fetishize gun violence, and as a result our nation is more dangerous, for both the citizenry and the police, than other advanced/industrialized nations. How that manifests in the numbers of officer-involved shootings, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's a significant factor.
