Dallas Police Chief David Brown held a wide-ranging press conference on Monday, where he touched on race, the investigation and the issue of guns.
In a dramatic moment, he urged legislators to do their jobs and propose new laws to combat gun violence.
"We're doing ours. We're putting our lives on the line," Brown said. "The other aspects of government need to step up and help us."
With that, here are five pieces of audio from that press conference you should listen to:
1. Brown addressed the issue of gun control head-on:
2. He also touched on the problem he sees with open-carry laws, which he said were increasingly challenging for law enforcement. "We don't know who the good guy is versus who the bad guy is if everybody starts shooting," he said.
3. Brown also got personal, explaining that he became a police officer to help Dallas through its crack epidemic. And he urged protesters to leave the picket line and join the police force. "We're hiring," he said. "We'll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about."
4. Brown was asked how he processed the protests against police as a black man:
5. Finally, Brown defended his police department's use of an explosive to kill the Dallas shooter. He said his guidance to the officer was not to "bring the building down." He added: "This wasn't an ethical dilemma for me. I'd do it again."
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.