Jimmy Kimmel takes on Vegas and — briefly — downtown Lawrence shootings on national TV

A few minutes into his Monday night monologue decrying the Las Vegas massacre and the national gun politics now surrounding it, comedian Jimmy Kimmel interjected — if very briefly — about a local happening.

“Well hello, everyone. Here we are again in the aftermath of another terrible, inexplicable, shocking and painful tragedy, this time in Las Vegas,” Kimmel opened, before discussing the shootings that killed 59 and wounded 527 more at an outdoor country music concert, then moving on to the multiple guns possessed and employed by the shooter.

“Why is that allowed? I don’t know why our so-called leaders continue to allow this to happen, or, maybe better question, why do we continue to let them allow it to happen?,” he said. “Five people got shot in Lawrence, Kansas, last night. Three of them died. It didn’t even make a blip, because this is just a regular part of our lives now.”

From there, Kimmel switches to politics and criticism of elected officials, including: “We have a major problem with gun violence in this country, and I guess they don’t care. I’m sick of it. I want this to be a comedy show, I hate talking about things like this. I just want to, you know, laugh about things every night, but it seems to be becoming increasingly difficult lately. It feels like someone has opened a window into hell.”

Kimmel is a Las Vegas native. He does have a secondary connection to Lawrence, though. His wife, Molly McNearney, a writer for his show, is a University of Kansas graduate.

— I’m the Journal-World’s public safety reporter. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com or by phone at 785-832-7187. I’m also on Twitter, @saramarieshep.