As shootings hit close to home, govs wrestle with next steps

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Two weeks after one of his wife’s closest friends was killed in a Nashville school shooting, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday called for legislation that would keep firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others. Lee, a Republican, is the latest public official to experience personal loss in a mass shooting. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, also lost one of his best friends when a gunman killed five people at a Louisville bank on Monday. But Lee’s appeal comes as Republicans maintain supermajority control in both the Kentucky and Tennessee statehouses, where GOP lawmakers have long resisted limiting gun access. And as mass shootings continue across the U.S., resistance to make significant changes to gun restrictions remains high.