Political leaders from the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee on Tuesday called for tighter gun control, including tougher laws preventing people in crisis from accessing firearms, after two mass shootings killed 11 people in Louisville and Nashville.

A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine others at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-old minors and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.

At a briefing Tuesday afternoon, Louisville police said the gunman had been killed by officer fire and released body-camera footage from the first two officers who responded to the scene.

The footage showed them being shot at by the gunman, who was waiting for them as they approached the bank lobby. He struck one officer, a 26-year-old recent police academy graduate, in the head. The other officer sustained a minor wound but managed to scramble behind a planter. He eventually got a sight on the gunman and killed him.

Earlier on Tuesday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee urged General Assembly members to find a compromise to bolster the state's so-called "red flag" laws, aimed at making it more difficult for people deemed to be a threat to the public or themselves from having access to firearms.

Such legislation would supplement an existing law allowing courts to bar perpetrators of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking from owning or possessing firearms.

Lee's call for cooperation followed the Republican-dominated assembly's expulsion of two Black Democrats who staged a protest in the Tennessee State Capitol calling for tighter gun controls.

The governor also said he would sign an executive order requiring local courts to report criminal records to state law enforcement within 72 hours, a measure aimed at more effective screening of those purchasing guns.

Lee called on the legislature "to separate those dangerous people from firearms, while at the same time preserving the constitutional rights of the people of this state" at a news conference in Nashville on Tuesday.

At a news conference in Louisville, U.S. Representative Morgan McGarvey urged federal lawmakers to support universal background checks. The Democrat said that during his time in the state legislature, he worked with conservative colleagues to introduce laws that would help temporarily remove firearms from people in crisis.

McGarvey pointed out that the Louisville shooter could have been flagged as a risk, citing reports that the man legally purchased the assault-style rifle he used on April 4, and texted or called someone to tell them he was suicidal and contemplating harm before carrying out the shooting.

"We don't have the tools on the books to deal with someone who is an imminent danger to themselves or to others," the congressman said.

Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the news conference that Monday's shooting brought the number of people killed by gun violence in Louisville to 40 in 2023 so far, calling the level of firearms violence in his city "beyond horrific."

The Democratic mayor noted that under the current Kentucky law, the rifle will one day be legally auctioned off, and urged state lawmakers to allow guns used in deadly shootings to be destroyed.

"The laws we have now are enabling violence and murder," he said.

Any person 21 or older who is eligible to lawfully possess a firearm can carry a concealed deadly weapon, according to Kentucky State Police.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the U.S., which has experienced 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016. Those statistics use the definition of four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

As of April 10, over 11,500 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. – an average of about 115 deaths each day, it said.

(With input from Reuters)