The Lewiston killer is dead.

That’s good news for a lot of people. It’s not so much that human life is meaningless to them as this particular individual gave up any claim to being human when he gunned down 18 people and injured 13 others.

While his body was found on Friday evening, the time between the shooting on Wednesday and when the announcement was made left a lot of people in Maine rather tense.

CNN spoke to one person who was feeling this anxiety.

Reporting from a town near Lewiston — the scene of the mass shooting — CNN senior correspondent Shimon Prokupecz spoke with a local resident, whom he identified as “Cory,” about his concerns as police continue searching for the suspect they believe murdered at least 18 people.

“It’s just — nerves are rattled right now. [I’m] keeping an eye on the woods because I know those woods down there; they run right back here. And I got my daughter inside,” Cory told Prokupecz.

“How old is your daughter?” the reporter followed up.

“She’s 10 years old. And my oldest daughter, she works at the Walmart [distribution center], too, and I had to message her, find out if she is OK. It’s very unnerving right now,” Cory responded.

When Prokupecz noted that police officers have been canvasing the neighborhood with their long guns visible, Cory interrupted the reporter to explain why he finds comfort in their firepower — and why he wishes he had some of his own.

“That actually made me feel better, seeing the cops coming around here — that makes me feel a million times better,” he said. “And the situation like this, I wish I had a firearm.”

https://rumble.com/embed/v3p859p/?pub=4

I can imagine because I’ve been there.

There was a time shortly after my wife and I got married when I didn’t have any guns. One day, she took my son to get his two-month checkup and something happened that made me wish I, too, had a firearm.

My son was born on July 11, 2001.

You do the math.

Yeah, we now know there was nothing following the planes hitting buildings, but we didn’t know that at the time. The anxiety that “Cory” felt in that interview is the anxiety I felt on 9/11.

The difference is, if anything, Cory had a lot more reason to be anxious.

A gun is one of those things that most people will go their whole lives without ever needing, yet when you need it, you can’t get one fast enough. It’s like waiting until you need a fire extinguisher to try and get one.

The smartest thing any household can do, contrary to what many self-proclaimed experts say, is to buy a gun. Get a gun and learn how to use it so that if something happens, you’re armed and ready and not wishing you’d done something sooner.

And if that something never happens? Well, shooting also happens to be a hell of a lot of fun, so you’re not out anything.

I sincerely hope Cory here goes out and gets a firearm, gets training, and makes sure he never feels this way ever again.