You’d think the bustling, neon-lit, ‘sin city’ streets of Las Vegas would have nothing in common with a community church in a tiny, no-stoplight town like Sutherland Springs. But in America, we all have one terrible thing in common. And so it is that these two very different places find themselves playing an unwanted, starring role in America’s longest-running horror story. “At least 26 people are dead after a gunman opened fire during a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Those killed in the church ranged in age from 18-months to 77-years old.” Here’s the latest from Buzzfeed.

+ The Texas church gunman recently sent threatening texts to his mother-in-law, received a bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force, and had been sentenced to twelve-months confinement for spousal and child abuse. (You want to vet someone? Try domestic abusers who purchase assault weapons.)

+ Because of his past, the gunman could not qualify for a license to carry a concealed handgun. But he “would not have needed one to possess the Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic assault rifle reportedly used in the shooting.”

+ “Holcombe, an associate pastor for the church, was killed in the gunfire … Karla Holcombe, Bryan Holcombe’s wife of about four decades, was killed, too … Bryan and Karla Holcombe’s son Marc Daniel Holcombe, 36, also was killed … Marc Daniel had an infant daughter, Noah Holcombe, who, was a year old … She is dead, too … Another son of Bryan and Karla, John Holcombe, survived, but his wife, Crystal Holcombe, who was pregnant, did not. Crystal had five children. Three of them, Emily, Megan and Greg, died.” Death sweeps across 3 generations of a single family gathered at church.

+ “The resident … ran out of his house barefoot and exchanged gunfire with the shooter before the gunman sped away in a pearl-colored Fort Explorer. The armed resident then hailed a man across the street and got in his truck, telling him to chase down the gunman.” From CNN: Man exchanged fire with gunman, then joined another man to chase shooter.

+ Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on why we need more guns in church. President Trump said the shooting in Sutherland Springs “isn’t a guns situation.”