It makes no sense.

I started to type the sentence, and it hit me. Why it took 25 years, two months, and however many days to come to me, I have no idea. But it hit me this afternoon.

Why do they call them "armed gunmen?"

They're gunmen, so obviously, they're armed.

"Why do they call them 'armed gunmen'?" I asked. "I mean, they're gunmen. They have to be armed."

I think out loud from the safety of my little cubicle pretty often, and usually I get at least one response. There are four people that can hear me.

No one responded today. Just silence and the sound of tapping computer keys in that part of the office.

Then I deleted what I'd written, and just went with plain old "gunmen."