Klaus Niebuhr on “why it’s a bad idea to have a big group of people with guns in the streets,” a question that has been on of the central subjects of the National Rifle Association’s “Freedom Summit.” But as much as Niebuhr was right about the absurdity of the theory that a gun in the hands of a bad person would be dangerous, he was also right to point out the fallacy in the idea that guns have any kind of distinct ability to prevent or help people.

So let’s give more credit to gun-toting civilians like Dorner, who may very well have found an armory filled with guns on one of those lonely lonely stretches of beach on the west coast of San Diego that were just so very empty. And let’s give more credit to the police officers caught up in the hunt for him—in addition to the numerous civilian witnesses in the area who gave detailed descriptions of his movements. Let’s be sure to call attention to the fact that he lived in a town so vast it is easy to see where he is now: on the west side of the City Of Los Angeles.

“This is an issue that is going to be with us forever, and we want to live in a world where we don’t have to be afraid,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck of the Dorner case, a comment that he had more than likely made somewhere just as close to his house as it is in La Palma.

If LAPD had gone on the kill-list, it’s highly likely that Dorner — the manhunt’s last known leader — would have gone into hiding. But instead LAPD launched an intense hunt for a man that was hiding in plain sight. That wasn’t a problem for the LAPD when people were dying at the hands of police officers so regularly. They do it every day. That is what we are dealing with here. The LAPD, on the front lines, is the real victim here.

“This has turned out to be an easy and painful case,” Beck said.

“We want to live in a world where we don’t have to be afraid.” – LAPD Chief Charlie Beck