I'm not sure what you'd expect to be reassured of, that cops are less likely to die of car accidents and gunshots than the average person? My point isn't that they have no increased risk, my point is that the level of risk in reality isn't nearly as high as people seem to think - and warrants no special deference. Law enforcement isn't even in the top 10 dangerous professions, they fall well behind loggers, garbage men, truck drivers, roofers... have you thanked your garbage man for risking his life to collect your refuse today?
I don't have any particular preconceptions about how dangerous it is to be a cop. But I do know that car accidents are one of the most common ways to die. So when you tell me that cops are more likely to get shot than to die in a car accident, my perception of the danger goes up.
I used the word "nearly" for a reason, the numbers are very close and the method of categorization is not known to me (folks like to lump suicide with homicide when it furthers their argument). So "more" isn't an order of magnitude and the absolute number is so low that a use of it in justification for any endeavor would be a disguised appeal to emotion.
