...Not only fewer crimes, but some of that gun violence is citizens defending their lives and property. I put that in the plus side.
Exactly. If you trade off one dead perp for 1,2,3 or more victims of a crime being killed you get one heck of a return on investment. That says nothing about once the perp is dead, he commits no more crime against other victims.
But liberals refuse to say the death of a perp is preferable to the death of victims. To a lib they are moral equivalents. Because the perp himself is a victim of the oppressive culture he lives in.