When the lay world watches a dystopian nightmare unfold in real time, it typically views the nightmare far differently than do lawyers. The public, rightly so, simply wants the best possible outcome for the victims, or potential victims. Lawyers, however, particularly those who practice in the field, often view the nightmare through the harsh prism of the sometimes uncompromising ethical rules that guide them.

Against that backdrop, consider this. A man armed with an AR-15 automatic rifle is holed up in a row house. He fires hundreds of rounds, shooting six police officers who were serving a warrant. He takes as hostages two other officers and three other people. When cops get shot, as the shooter would clearly know, things are not likely to end well for the shooter either—frequently he is killed (or he survives as a cop-killer).