Two weeks ago, it was a school in Nashville, Tennessee. This morning it was a bank in Louisville, Kentucky. Gun violence is a sad, deadly recurrence in America today. It leaves behind a trail of tears – and sometimes, resolve.

Consider Craig Greenberg, mayor of Louisville. He won office after surviving a shooting at his campaign office one year ago. Now his city has suffered at least four dead, with eight injured, after a shooter opened fire inside a bank this morning.

“Notwithstanding tragedies like today . . . we will find ways to love and support one another, and the family and friends who have been directly impacted by these acts of gun violence,” Mr. Greenberg said.

Among those directly impacted was the state’s governor, Andy Beshear, who had one close friend killed in the attack. “We’ve got to wrap our arms around these families,” he said.

Then there is Gloria Johnson. In 2008, as a teacher at Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, she watched terrified students flee the building after a 15-year-old was fatally shot. That helped drive her into politics. On March 30, state Rep. Gloria Johnson walked to the well of the Tennessee House with two colleagues to protest what they saw as political inaction on guns in the wake of the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

Her colleagues, who used a bullhorn, were expelled last week. She wasn’t. “I’m not apologizing for what I did. ... I felt compelled in my heart because I was a teacher who lived through a school shooting,” she said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee had a personal connection to the Covenant School tragedy as well. He and his wife were close friends with one of the adult victims.

Mr. Lee last week proposed school safety legislation which, among other things, would pay for armed security guards in every public and private Tennessee school. He said: “May we grieve in the days ahead, but not without hope.”