Remember the statistics that prove that if you own a gun, it's more likely to kill someone in your family than protect you? A study by the National Associate of Police Chiefs "proves" the same thing: Cops are more like to be killed by their own gun than by a criminal. The conclusion, obviously (if you're a liberal) is that they would be safer if they patrolled the streets without guns.

"Stop! . . . Or I'll say 'Stop' again!"

Of course there's a catch, just like in all the other studies which show the same thing about average folk like us. No, I'm not wrong, nor lying, but you're being misled anyway:

The study actually shows about twice as many cops commit suicide as are killed in the line of fire.

This is the same effect which leads to the statistic many of you have ingrained in your head. About 300 officers commit suicide each year, about 150 are killed in the line of duty. And of course, suicide is primarily committed with a legally-owned gun. (Drug overdoses are so uncertain, and jumping off things is scary and overly dramatic. And who can bother to tie a decent hangman's noose these days?)

Off course, if we took guns away from cops, they wouldn't be safer.

First, being gun-less wouldn't automatically prevent suicide -- nor give them a sunnier disposition and more hope for the future.

Nor would it do the same for us.

Second, and most importantly, unarmed cops would be sitting ducks. Their guns, even unfired, deter criminals from killing them. Of course, there's no record of how often a cop uses the mere threat of deadly force to save his or her life, so this tiny little fact gets overlooked.

Exactly as it does with studies of us ordinary folk.

Point made?