We're hearing a lot about guns and gun control these days.
It's understandable. Three Pittsburgh Police officers were killed in the line of duty earlier this month.
Right now, many people are worried, angry and heartsick.
They were genuinely horrified by the events that occurred in Stanton Heights the morning of April 4.
The killer had a number of guns, including an AK-47. Folks are fixating on that. It's understandable.
It's also unproductive.
The question that many people are really asking is, what does it take to keep our police officers safe?
It's not gun control. A police officer can be killed by anything: a gun, a knife, a baseball bat, a fist, a car. It doesn't have to be an AK-47.
We forget just how dangerous the job is.
We forget -- or ignore -- the fact that there are people in our society who view police officers as "the enemy."
The rest of us could best be described as ambivalent. We want the police to catch people who break the law. We just don't want them to catch us.
And when something terrible happens -- like three police officers shot and killed -- we want reassurance. We want some "fix" to guarantee that it will never happening again.
There isn't one.
It isn't about the AK-47.
It's about respect. For the law. For those who enforce it. For each other.
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