| After the shocking assassination of conservative activist Charlie, Kirk lawmakers in Washington reacted with grief, frustration, anger — and fear. Some lawmakers said they’ll be cutting back on their public appearances and bolstering their personal security protocols. Representative Nancy Mace said she’ll start carrying a firearm in her home state of South Carolina and anywhere else it’s legal. “I will not be doing any public events anytime soon until we have a better handle on greater security controls,” said the Republican lawmaker, who often draws protesters for her crusade against transgender rights. Threats and attacks against elected officials at every level across the nation and across the political spectrum have escalated dramatically in recent years. President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassin’s bullet last year as he campaigned in Pennsylvania while another attempt was thwarted. In April, the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion was set on fire as Governor Josh Shapiro and his family slept inside. And in June, a Minnesota state legislator and her husband were killed by a gunman, who also wounded another lawmaker and his spouse.  House Speaker Mike Johnson. Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. The US Capitol Police investigated 9,474 “concerning” statements and direct threats to members of Congress last year. That’s up from 3,939 investigations in 2017, the year that a gunman opened fire at a congressional baseball team practice, critically wounding Representative Steve Scalise, a member of the party’s House leadership. “This can’t be allowed to be acceptable,” Scalise said today on CBS Mornings. “You can be angry about politics, but you don’t express that violently.” House Speaker Mike Johnson is among the top congressional leaders with a government-paid security detail, but he said providing that level of protection for all 535 members of Congress isn’t feasible because of the cost. The leading option right now is expanding a pilot program launched earlier this year that doubles the amount available to lawmakers to pay for their own security to $20,000 per year. Only about 20 members have been taking advantage of it, but Johnson expects that number will rise in the wake of Kirk’s killing. “People have been shaken by this event,” he said. New York Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican, said it’s the responsibility of the nation’s leaders to try and cool the overheated political atmosphere. He noted that today was the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the US, a time that the country put aside political differences and united. “I’m hoping that this date 24 years later frames how people think about the Kirk assassination,” he said. “I don’t think it’s so productive to look backward and say, who caused that, or who through gasoline on the fire.”— Joe Sobczyk Read More: | 
