The National Rifle Association’s “good guy with a gun” hypothesis was tested in Arvada last week and the good guy, Johnny Hurley of Golden, will be buried this week. Yes, he stopped the “bad guy with a gun” – fatally shooting him. While it’s likely to be weeks before we understand the sequence of events leading to Hurley’s death, there are still dynamics we can discern. Likely alarmed with the knowledge that fellow officer Gordon Beesley had already been slain, an Arvada officer arriving on the scene shot Hurley. Tragically, Hurley’s bravery may have saved this officer from yet another fatal ambush.

From all reports, Beesley was exactly the kind of compassionate, caring officer we should want to wear a police uniform. Yet it was his uniform that prompted a deranged killer to snuff out his life. The only previous “good guy with a gun” scenario I can recall was the deputy sheriff who stopped a shooter several years ago at a megachurch service in Colorado Springs. She, of course, benefited from formal active-shooter training. Hunting down killers is not work for amateurs. During combat, military historians report frequent friendly fire deaths occurring amidst “the fog of war.” For the Arvada officer who killed Hurley, there were few clues as to whom the bad guy would be or whether he was acting alone.

Between these incidents, dozens of Coloradans were slaughtered in mass shootings (defined as three or more victims). The legislature has taken a few halting steps to curtail access to automatic rifles, as well as large ammunition clips.

There’s something more than a little amiss when we worry about the risks of shopping at the grocery store, attending a movie or sending our kids off to school. Relying on a good guy or girl to spring into action and protect us is delusional. Gunfights are dangerous. When frequent, we call them wars. The overwhelming majority of Colorado residents want fewer shootings.

Johnny Hurley was a hero. Sadly, his heroism cost him his life. This is not the outcome anyone wanted. The price was simply too high. We require our fellow citizens to pass a competency test before obtaining a driver’s license. Despite this precaution, roughly 500 Coloradans are killed each year on our highways. Is it really too much to demand gun purchasers demonstrate similar evidence of their skills? Even on the frontier, saloons recognized guns and alcohol didn’t mix. Patrons checked their guns at the door. They didn’t always get them returned later that night. Common sense dictates conditional reverence for Second Amendment rights.

Instead of picking up the shooter’s AR-15, perhaps Johnny Hurley should have left his victim’s rifle on the ground and lain down with hands extended over his head. Perhaps adrenaline and shock blinded him to his risk. Neither could Hurley or the officer who killed him be certain there was only a single shooter.

A pair of boneheaded arguments are advanced by pro-gun advocates. First, the right to gun ownership is so precious that collateral deaths like Hurley’s are simply the necessary price we pay for our freedoms. (Three thousand children who should have completed high school in 2021 had their lives cut short before graduation by a bullet. I’m sorry, but that price is just too damned high.) Second is a ludicrous claim that our Founding Fathers wisely placed the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights so American citizens could rebel against a tyrannical takeover of our democracy. Really? Smell the flowers. There’s a reason why fewer than 5,000 American troops have, for the most part, contained the civil carnage in Afghanistan. Today’s battlefield systems provide a handful of soldiers with sufficient firepower to resist tens of thousands of insurgents.

The ‘would be’ insurrectionists who recently assaulted the U. S. Capitol could have been exterminated in minutes. Colorado voters need to place sensible gun policy at the top of their political priorities. If a candidate won’t commit to support rigorous gun checks, ammunition limits, secure storage and mandatory safety training, then deny them your vote. It’s that simple. Become a single-issue voter for a few election cycles to grab their attention. The next stray bullet could have your name on it. Even better, police leadership should embrace their past support for reasonable gun controls. It wasn’t so long ago that Colorado police chiefs opposed “cop-killer” bullets and complained of being out-gunned by bad guys. Nothing has changed. Gun zealots are not friends of law enforcement. Flying blue flags won’t protect cops. Reforms will!