Police chiefs across the country are reiterating warnings about the dangers posed by expanded open-carry and assault weapons laws such as those on the books in Texas and Missouri. The shooting deaths of five officers in Dallas last week underscore what opponents, including this newspaper, have long contended: Such laws increase the danger for law enforcers and put the public at added risk.

In Dallas, police initially believed they were dealing with multiple gunmen, in part because 20 to 30 marchers in the protest that preceded the shootings were carrying long guns, as permitted under Texas law. Some walked through the streets of downtown Dallas carrying AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifles similar to one used by Micah Johnson as he opened fire on police.

Advocates contend it is the Second Amendment right of every law-abiding citizen to own and carry such firearms. They assert that the presence of armed civilians actually increases public safety by deterring would-be attackers and providing backup in defense of public safety.

The shootings in Dallas showed how utterly bogus such arguments are. It was Johnson's ability to obtain military-style weaponry that dramatically increased the danger and put police at such a tactical disadvantage. The long guns carried by marchers fleeing the shooting weren't much use. By carrying them, marchers put themselves at greater risk because police had no way of knowing whether they were friend or foe.

In Cleveland, authorities are grappling with Ohio's open carry law as the city prepares to host the Republican National Convention, where gun rights will be a central theme.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, a Democrat, says it's time to revise gun laws in his state to stop people from carrying long guns in public. "I just want to come back to common sense," he said.

That's exactly where we stand. The public sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, permissible since a federal ban expired in 2004, has dramatically increased the ability of crazed gunmen to inflict high casualty tolls such as those witnessed in Dallas, Orlando, San Bernardino, Calif., Aurora, Colo., and Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, among many others.

Gun-rights advocates have somehow carried the argument in state legislatures largely by threatening to unseat lawmakers who dare to challenge them. The "liberty" they advocate translates into terror for the rest of the nation.

Consider the words of Kory Watkins, a vociferous gun activist in Texas: "I'm tired of playing political games," he warned in a February 2015 video. Failure by the Texas Legislature to expand open carry laws would constitute treason, he said, and "treason is punishable by death."

It's time to stop allowing fanatics to dictate the nation's gun laws. There is a common-sense middle ground, but America has strayed far from it.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH