Mass shootings in the U.S. have become endemic and normalized. Many of us are resigned to the horror (and it is truly horrible) because we don't know what to do. Because our leaders either don't care or lack the power to act to stop the madness.

Worse, many on the right (like the pistol-strapped politician you refer to) hold out explicitly that shootings are an acceptable price to pay for "freedom," by which they mean the freedom to run around in public armed to the teeth ... not the freedom to live, love, work, and form relationships without interference from the State.

Funny how the loudest "right to bear arms" voices are also the loudest voices demanding the restriction of liberty for LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, people of color, etc.

What they demand isn't "freedom from," it's "freedom to," – and the "to" part is often authoritarian in the extreme.