The Courier-Journal

Another day, another shooting — each equally horrific but all beginning to run together with numbingly familiar frequency and similarity.

Two Las Vegas Police officers Sunday, an Oregon high school student Tuesday, college students on two different campuses recently. An armed assault on a Georgia courthouse Friday, thankfully stopped by police.

And this is just the past few weeks.

What do the shooters have in common?

Most are mentally disturbed.

Several, including the Las Vegas husband and wife who gunned down two Las Vegas police officers and a random Walmart shopper, held extremist, anti-government views that this nation must begin to take more seriously.

And all had easy access to firearms in a culture that has left the country seemingly helpless to prevent such incidents of fatal shootings of innocent people at stores, restaurants, churches, movie theaters, work and school — including the 20 small children and six adults slain in the seeming safety of their Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2010.

Yet most elected officials continue to cower under the brazen claims of gun extremists that this is what the Founding Fathers meant in the 2nd Amendment guaranteeing "the right of people to keep and bear arms."

The Las Vegas shooters, husband and wife Jerad and Amanda Miller, shouted revolutionary slogans and draped a swastika and a "Don't Tread on Me" flag, a tea party symbol, over the body of one slain officer. Recently, they had joined the anti-government militia at the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy, who is fighting the government's effort to collect what he owes in cattle grazing fees.

Two weeks ago, the California father of a student slain at random near a Santa Barbara campus appealed for public to stand up to the onslaught of gun violence. The gunman, Elliot Rodger, a former college student with emotional problems, also fatally shot two female students — both strangers — to punish women for rejecting his advances, and he fatally stabbed three men at his apartment complex.

"Why did Chris die?" demanded Richard Martinez, whose son was shot by the angry gunman seeking revenge for social rejection.

"Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA," Mr. Martinez said.

The NRA — National Rifle Association — which used to be a respectable, albeit a conservative, group representing mostly hunters, has sided with the extremists demanding the right to tote assault rifles in public. It is now the face of the gun madness.

We continue to hope more rational minds prevail in efforts to enact sensible gun laws. But that day seems a long way off. And the shootings keep coming nearly every day.