Youve seen it so many times before: A governor speaking after a mass shooting, mourning the loss of life. But what you saw after Mondays massacre in Louisville, Kentucky, was different.

This time, the governor knew some of the victims well.

This is awful, Gov. Andy Beshear said shortly after the shooting. I have a very close friend that didnt make it today.

The friend was Thomas Elliott , 63, a high-profile civic and corporate leader who worked in the financial industry. Elliott was a senior vice president at Old National Bank, which has branches across the Midwest and Appalachia including an office in downtown Louisville where, police say, a former employee walked in on Monday and began firing with a rifle.

The shooter died a few minutes later, following gunfire with officers who arrived quickly on the scene. But by that time, nine people had suffered serious wounds and four bank employees had died, according to police.

The four who died at the scene were Joshua Barrick, 40; Juliana Farmer, 45; James Tutt, 64; and Elliott. A fifth person, Deana Eckert, 57, died Monday night, police said .

At a news conference, a visibly shaken Beshear mourned them all, calling them children of God irreplaceable, amazing individuals that a terrible act of violence took from all of us.

He mentioned that he knew two of the surviving gunshot victims as well, including one who at the time was still in critical condition. As for Elliott, the governor described him as an incredible friend and one of the people I talk to most in the world.

In America, Lots Of People Know Gunshot Victims

Beshear knowing some of the victims isnt as unusual as it might seem, according to a new survey that the nonprofit research organization KFF published Tuesday morning.

In that survey, 19% of adult respondents said they had a family member who had died from gun violence. Similar proportions said theyd been personally threatened with a gun (21%) or had witnessed somebody being injured with a gun (17%).

The numbers are consistent with the findings of a 2022 UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll , as well as academic studies and statistics on the prevalence of gun violence. The KFF poll has some more detailed questions, designed to produce a more nuanced picture of exactly who is experiencing what kind of gun violence.

We hope that these numbers help explain how commonplace these experiences are and how far-reaching the impacts of gun violence are, Ashley Kirzinger, KFFs director of survey methodology, told HuffPost.

KFF didnt plan to release its poll in the immediate wake of a mass shooting. Advance notice about the survey landed in reporters inboxes about 9 a.m. Monday, before word of the Louisville massacre began circulating widely on social media.

Then again, its not like this poll needed a new shooting to seem relevant. The Nashville school shooting was just two weeks ago, the Michigan State University shooting just two months ago. Since the beginning of the year, there have been literally thousands of fatal shootings across the country including another one in Louisville around the same time as the bank massacre.

That shooting took place at a community college. One person died.

The two incidents appear to be entirely unrelated, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a news conference following the bank shooting. But they both took lives. They both leave people scarred, grieving and angry. I share all of those feelings myself right now.

Theres a lot of that going around now.

In America, Gun Violence Is Common

The U.S. is the only economically advanced country where gun violence is so common, and thats almost surely because this is the only economically advanced country where gun ownership is so common.

Or, to put it more simply, America has so much gun violence because Americans have so many guns .

Theres no quick and easy way to address this problem because theres no quick and easy way to reduce the number of guns in circulation.

Tight limits on ownership combined with buybacks for the existing supply have worked in other countries. But the votes to pass those dont exist, either in Congress or in most state legislatures. Even if they could pass, such restrictions would struggle to get past the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been using an expansive reading of the Second Amendment to strike down some of the regulations already on the books .

Still, theres good reason to believe more modest measures could make a difference. Among them are universal background checks and red flag programs, which allow courts to take guns away from individuals who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others. These measures poll well and have become law in a number of states, although Kentucky is not one of them.

The Republican-controlled legislature there has been moving in the opposite direction. Less than two weeks ago, it overwhelmingly passed a Second Amendment Sanctuary initiative that forbids local or state officials from enforcing recently passed federal gun regulations. Beshear, a Democrat who has supported red flag laws but opposed assault weapon bans, allowed it to become law without his signature.

On Monday, Beshear didnt talk about the possibility of tightening Kentuckys gun laws, saying only that a discussion of issues would come later. And it certainly wouldnt be easy to pass new restrictions, given the states political profile.

But if the survey data is right, Beshear isnt the only Kentuckian whos lost a loved one to gun violence. And maybe that will make a difference.