[devilbunny]

If you want to have a philosophical discussion about whether that is really the "sole purpose of government", then I suppose we could have one, though frankly my interest in that isn't all that high.

That's a long way from asserting that it is, in fact, the sole purpose of government, which was what I objected to.

[gambutin]

It’s a bit odd how fast the discussion moves away from what actually happened and onto nitpicking the wording used to criticize it.

Even if you drop the word “sole” entirely, the basic expectation is still that a government does not kill unarmed civilians.

At that point, it is fair to wonder whether the objection adds any clarity, or just pulls attention away from the judgment itself.