It’s already become part of the national mourning ritual: after the latest horrifying mass shooting, liberals assail Republicans’ rote offerings of “thoughts and prayers” to the victims, juxtaposing these empty statements with the amount of “blood money” they’ve received from the National Rifle Association (NRA). Stupefied by the inaction of elected officials, they look for an explanation and find it in the putatively stunning sums buying off these politicians.

So after seventeen people were murdered at a Florida high school last week, Igor Volsky, who pioneered the tactic as a vice president at the Center for American Progress, took to Twitter to quote politicians and add comments like “With all due respect, @SenAlexander we need you to give back the $5,857 you got from @NRA and actually do your job and pass legislation that would reduce the number of guns in circulation. #SendBackTheBloodMoney”

Thousands of others followed suited. Joan Walsh — former editor in chief of Salon and current national affairs correspondent for the Nation — offered a typical message: “’This is pure evil,’ says @SpeakerRyan, about the Parkland massacre. Yes, it IS pure evil that you’ve done the bidding of the gun lobby that’s given you $171K.”