Okay, everybody, step back and take a breath- the sheriff stated it clearly- “if you pull a gun on us, you can expect to be shot-” Meets all the requirements of a lethal force response. You’d do or at least attempt the same if you were confronted by an armed thug - so get over the LEs right to self-defense. Unlike you they go looking for the thug on our behalf. While the lethal force equation is the same for both LE and citizen, the probability of an LEO needing to face such an equation is much higher.
I would that all Chief LEOs would communicate to their public the same message.
Now, on the other hand, in anything other than the above equation, all LEO had better do right all the time, or they will be on the other side of the equation. Tough job, so either do it right or flip burgers somewhere safe.
How about making this a democratic principle? The problem comes when it is not.
And this was no longer a mandatory self defense situation. The threat had come to a standoff. Nobody was being picked off. Confess it... we have a vengeance situation now. If vengeance cannot wait for the operation of law, then we all are hurt.
If you want real manliness in your war... then no you won’t be a cowboy. Or rather you WILL be like the real cowboy, who always cared for his horse first before himself and did not make a public attention grabbing spectacle out of his yeehaws.