<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3rBoGe_0lnzNTU200" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3rBoGe_0lnzNTU200" width="960" height="540" ><figcaption>At left, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during a press conference after five people were shot and six injured at a bank in downtown Louisville on Monday, April 10. At right, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee responds to questions during a news conference on Tuesday, April 11 in Nashville. USA Today Network, AP </figcaption></figure><figure><figcaption>At left, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during a press conference after five people were shot and six injured at a bank in downtown Louisville on Monday, April 10. At right, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee responds to questions during a news conference on Tuesday, April 11 in Nashville. USA Today Network, AP </figcaption></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><p> Gun violence has touched most American households, so it’s <strong></strong> no surprise that a governor would know the victim of a mass shooting. </p><p> But it’s not one governor, and it’s not one mass shooting. </p><h3> ‘One of my closest friends’ </h3><p> Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear described “one of my closest friends,” Tommy Elliott, the senior vice president of Old National Bank who was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/us/victims-louisville-kentucky-bank-shooting/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> among the five people struck down </a> Monday during a shooting inside the Louisville bank. </p><p> “Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career. Helped me become governor. Gave me advice on being a good dad,” Beshear said at a news conference. “He’s one of the people I talked to most in the world and very rarely were we taking about my job.” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/04/10/louisville-kentucky-shooting-press-conference-gov-nr-vpx.cnn?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Watch here </a> . </p><p> Elliott also knew Florida’s senator and former governor, Rick Scott, who <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/1645593586933673984" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> said on Twitter </a> Monday that Elliott was his banker for many years. </p><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><h3> ‘Cindy was supposed to come over for dinner with Maria last night’ </h3><p> Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was in a similar situation <strong></strong> recently, when he shared in a video message that his wife, Maria, was a close friend of Cindy Peak and former colleague of Katherine Koonce, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/us/victims-covenant-school-shooting-nashville/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> two women <strong></strong> who were among the six people killed </a> at Covenant School in Nashville in late March. </p><p> “Cindy was supposed to come over to have dinner with Maria last night after she filled in as a substitute teacher yesterday at Covenant,” <a href="https://www.wsmv.com/2023/03/29/gov-lee-says-wife-was-friends-2-shooting-victims/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Lee said </a> the day after the shooting. </p><h3> Most Americans have a personal experience </h3><p> Beshear, a Democrat, and Lee, a Republican, join the majority of Americans who say their family has been touched by gun violence. In fact, most Americans – 54% – say they or a family member have personal experience with some form of gun violence, <strong></strong> according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. </p><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><p> The survey also found that: </p><ul><li> 21% say they have personally been threatened with a gun. </li><li> 19% say a family member was killed by a gun (including suicide). </li><li> 17% have personally witnessed someone being shot. </li><li> 4% have personally shot a gun in self-defense. </li><li> 4% have been personally injured in a shooting. </li></ul><p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/health/gun-violence-widespread-impact-kff/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Read the full report </a> from CNN’s Deidre McPhillips, including how gun violence is more acutely experienced among Black adults. </p><h3> What changes minds? </h3><p> While most Americans feel some connection to gun violence, very few have power like a governor. For advocates of tougher gun laws, the unanswerable and recurring question is: What will it take to change the minds of policymakers to make it more difficult to obtain a gun? </p><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><p> Simply being touched by gun violence does not automatically make a person support all gun measures. Kaiser’s survey did not touch on how people affected by gun violence feel about gun policy, but a similar poll from last year did. </p><p> “There is not a consistent relationship between support for gun control policies and either recent experiences with gun violence or perceptions about the likelihood of being a victim of gun violence,” was one finding in the August 2022 <strong></strong><a href="https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/uchicago_harris_ap_norc_poll_report_final.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll </a> . </p><p> The authors did note that people who think they are more likely to be a victim of gun violence are more likely to support banning the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons. </p><h3> One victim of gun violence is still a strong supporter of the Second Amendment </h3><p> Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-ranking Republican in the House, was among the most seriously injured in a mass shooting that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/06/politics/congressional-shooter-70-rounds/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> targeted Republicans lawmakers </a> at a softball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2017. But he has maintained staunch support for a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment. </p><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><p> Scalise opposed the bipartisan gun legislation that passed through Congress last year to expand the background check system and encourage red flag laws in states like Tennessee and Kentucky. </p><p> “We will not eliminate gun violence or prevent mass shootings by making it harder for law-abiding citizens to exercise their right of self-defense,” Scalise said in a statement at the time. </p><h3> There have been some notable political evolutions on guns </h3><p> Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who has long been an advocate for tougher gun laws, was herself once inspired to purchase and carry a concealed weapon after a bomb planted at her house failed to go off in the 1970s. </p><p> “I know the sense of helplessness that people feel,” Feinstein said during a 1995 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombing. “I know the urge to arm yourself. Because that’s what I did.” </p><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate><p> She stopped carrying the gun after she was present at a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-14/harvey-milk-george-moscone-san-francisco-assassination-shaped-dianne-feinstein-career" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> shooting in San Francisco City Hall </a> . In 1978, a former council member shot and killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Feinstein, who ascended to the mayor’s office after Moscone’s <strong></strong> death, stopped carrying her concealed weapon. </p><p> She made a show of giving up her gun <strong><em></em></strong> as she tried to get San Franciscans to comply with a city handgun ban. The ban was later invalidated by a state court. Feinstein has remained an advocate of tougher gun laws. </p><h3> 10 years after shooting, Reagan endorsed new laws </h3><p> Former President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 by the delusional John Hinckley, Jr., who was trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster. </p><p> Hinckley, who was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/politics/john-hinckley-full-court-release-reagan-assassination-attempt/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> released from court supervision </a> after 41 years in 2022, used a .22 caliber revolver to shoot both Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, who was paralyzed in the attack and became an advocate of tougher gun laws. A decade after the shooting, long after he left office, Reagan wrote an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/25/us/gun-control-act-wins-final-battle-as-gop-retreats.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> op-ed in The New York Times </a> endorsing the “Brady bill,” which was ultimately passed in 1993 and created the first version of the federal background check system. </p><h3> Something new in Tennessee </h3><p> Lee, who oversaw the loosening of Tennessee’s gun laws in recent years, signaled a key evolution on Tuesday, when he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/politics/tennessee-gun-laws-governor-bill-lee/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> announced support for an “order of protection” law </a> , otherwise known as a red flag law. </p><p> “A new strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population,” Lee said. He will also strengthen the state’s background check system. </p><p> Beshear, meanwhile, has been at odds with the Republican-controlled legislature in his state, which can override his veto with a simple majority. </p><p> It did not matter that he neither signed nor vetoed a bill meant to make Kentucky a “Second Amendment sanctuary,” prohibiting local authorities from enforcing federal firearms regulation, when it came to his desk in March. The bill became law anyway. </p><p> Florida, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/florida-gov-scott-gun-bill/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> under Scott’s governorship </a> , enacted a red flag law in 2018 <strong></strong> that also raised the gun buying age to 21 after a string of mass shootings, including at a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/14/us/parkland-shooting-marjory-stoneman-douglas-2-years/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Parkland high school </a> and the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Pulse nightclub </a> . </p><p> At the time, it was seen as a key evolution by a Republican governor working with a Republican majority. Scott later <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/rick-scott-florida-federal-gun-laws/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> opposed legislation </a> to do the same at the national level. </p><h3> Supporting an assault weapons ban after a close call </h3><p> One Republican lawmaker who evolved is Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, whose daughter was present for a <a href="https://www.whio.com/home/oregon-district-shooting-rep-mike-turners-daughter-recounts-horrific-night/MVSKG5YPQJBGRBMGJIN3UBT654/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> mass shooting in Dayton that killed nine </a> in 2019. Turner endorsed the idea of an assault weapons ban <a href="https://turner.house.gov/2019/8/turner-supports-restricting-military-style-weapon-sales-magazine-limits" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the next day </a> . </p><p> CNN’s Dana Bash asked Turner after the recent <strong></strong> Nashville shooting about <strong></strong> his message to fellow Republicans, who have not followed him. </p><p> “I think this is one that we need to address – the story is always the same,” Turner said. “We hear that people learned that these people were a threat, and then they take these actions. We certainly need to do more to intervene.” </p><h3> More than half of states no longer require permits </h3><p> But the balance of gun legislation in most states has been moving <strong></strong> away from regulation and toward more individual freedom. </p><p> Both Tennessee and Kentucky are among the states that allow most people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, a key priority for gun rights activists, and one of the reasons why the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gives both states a failing grade on gun safety laws. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/politics/gun-law-grades-by-state-what-matters/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Here’s our recent report </a> on how Giffords gives out its grades. </p><p> Florida became the 26th state to enact a version of permitless carry when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law last week. Background checks are still required to purchase a gun. Read the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/politics/florida-legislature-concealed-carry-gun-permit/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> full story </a> from CNN’s Steve Contorno and Kit Maher. </p><p> But the current background check system has proven to be an imperfect way to keep guns out of the wrong hands. The Louisville shooter, Connor Sturgeon, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/us/louisville-kentucky-bank-shooting-tuesday/index.html?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> bought his AR-15-style rifle legally at a dealership </a> six days before going on a rampage and taking five lives. </p><p> For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at <a href="http://www.cnn.com/account/register?source=external-feeds_iluminar&amp;cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak%C2%AEistration_email_campaign=https://www.cnn.com/newsletters" rel="nofollow"> CNN.com </a></p></div></body>

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Two governors, like most Americans, touched by gun violence

Gun violence has touched most American households, so it's no surprise that a governor would know the victim of a mass shooting.