Are You Tired Of Reading About This 2

 A few sharp-eyed social commentators have taken notice of the description of the murderer in the Kentucky bank massacre. Accounts from various media outlets: "Mr. Sturgeon was a University of Alabama graduate who listed his profession as a 'syndications associate and portfolio banker' at Old National Bank on his LinkedIn page. " Or "Sturgeon grew up in southern Indiana, just north of Louisville, according to his mother's Facebook page. The elder of two boys, he attended Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Indiana, where he ran track and played basketball for the team his father, Todd, coached. He enrolled at the University of Alabama in 2016 as a business student."

Most of these accounts go on to describe how Mister Sturgeon took an AR-15 through the offices of the bank from which he was about to be fired and killed five people, wounded nine. I don't expect this will be reflected on his LinkedIn page, nor will his mother probably post the livestream of his rampage on her Facebook page. 

And of course, friends and neighbors were shocked to discover that their friend/neighbor had committed this atrocity. An associate of the killer, referred to by responsible media as "the suspect," said that Sturgeon had recently mentioned feeling suicidal. Which apparently he was, since he went ahead and saved a bullet for himself.

From a gun that, sing along with me now, "was purchased legally."

Why shouldn't a former track and basketball star, employed at a bank, a portfolio banker and syndication associate be allowed to celebrate his right as an American to own a machine for shredding human beings? The mayor of Louisville, where the bank shooting occurred, found terrible irony in the fact that current state law allows the rifle used to be held for a period, then sold at auction. The one mediating factor would be the removal of the firing pin. It won't be melted down or turned into a garden tool. It will be for sale again. 

Because we do not want anything to stand between us and guns. On the unlikely chance that having a gun in our hand will deflect the bullets coming at us from someone else's gun. If there is any good news it is based in the reactions to the most recent massacres in Kentucky and Tennessee from the governors of those states. Kentucky's Andy Beshear lost a close friend and mentor while Tennessee's Bill Lee was supposed to have dinner the night of the shooting in Nashville with one of the victims. Both seem to have been touched in some way that might strengthen background checks and red flag laws. 

At this point, anything that isn't actively removing voices for common sense gun control from legislative chambers sounds like hope. If that will be our shining light, let it be.