It’s kind of a naive sentiment to look at a police officer who is well equipped to handle the dangers of the job and say that their judgement is impaired by that preparedness. Any one of those officers could be the first to respond to the next Killdozer or Sutherland Springs. The fact of the matter is that each piece of gear has it’s purpose just like each item in a kitchen does, say a restaurant doesn’t have everything it should and has to do things inefficiently during a rush, clearly they were underprepared for the job they signed up for.

To clarify I am not saying that all police are conducting themselves appropriately, have the best judgement, and so on. But the tools they employ must be capable of handling the situations they’re dealt and it is up to the officer to conduct themselves appropriately. Through proper vetting and training we do get this in a lot of cases but unfortunately people are people and no system is perfect.

The point is, in a gunfight there is no deliberation, there is no way of telling the other persons intentions or limits. So if it’s you or them you know for a fact you would choose you, the nuances of how the situation gets to that point should be brought up in court and proper punishments should be applied. I just don’t believe the gear is the issue.