You can kill 58 people. But you can’t kill politics.

In the aftermath of the horror visited on a Strip country music festival, resulting in the deadliest shooting in modern American history, Nevada politicians both rose and fell to the occasion. During a week in which the place known to the world as Sin City, a place of artifice and illusion, was as real as any locale on the planet, some elected officials could not seem to resist pushing themselves forward and looking for attention.

One week later, I am torn about how to react, how to assess their behavior.

Politicians are human beings, despite some appearances to the contrary, and they live here, too. Some may think an elected official’s proper role is being there for constituents, providing a shoulder to cry on, giving reassurances that Vegas will be strong.

But the obvious plays for media attention -- they were at times practically elbowing each other out of the way in order to be on television during Metro briefings -- were positively stomach-turning. The purpose of those press events was to give updates on the investigation, not provide a platform for preening and prattling.

Let me pause here to say what a marvelous job Sheriff Joe Lombardo did the entire week, showing himself to be a no-nonsense leader who was alternately frustrated by the stymied probe into Stephen Paddock’s motive and irritated by the hectoring media hoping for a headline. He was a consummate pro and he was so….real. Kudos also to Undersheriff Kevin McMahill, who was even more no-nonsense than his boss and came across as a true stalwart.

What I don’t understand is why any of our elected officials had to speak before or after Lombardo or McMahill. What purpose did that serve? What did they add? Did we really need to hear from the lieutenant governor? Did it make people feel any better to see a long parade of politicians on stage?

One of the most ubiquitous has been Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, whom some forget actually is the highest-ranking official who oversees the Strip, which is not in the city of Las Vegas. I have heard people ask whether he would have been as omnipresent if he were not running for governor, if he would have set up that victims' fund (along with the sheriff) if he were not seeking higher office.

I have a simple answer to that one: Who cares? He raised $10 million! No one has done anything more concrete to help victims than Sisolak in the wake of the tragedy.

Sisolak’s not-so-friendly rival, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, was all over national TV last week because most of the parachuting-in cable news folks don’t know the Strip is not in her city. Those geographic lines made little difference anyhow, and she is one of the faces of Las Vegas. It made sense for her to express sorrow and sympathy to the world, and she made herself constantly available, exhausted as she obviously was.

I did find it irritating to hear her repeatedly refer to the gunned-down victims as “twinkling stars” in the firmament, and her comment to Rachel Maddow about “the fund that the sheriff started” was obviously designed to slight Sisolak. Such pettiness is unbecoming.

The other prominent candidate for governor, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, also was at a few too many of those Metro briefings, just standing there. The attorney general really has no role in the investigation so had no official reason to be there.

To his credit, though, Laxalt mostly stayed in the background most of the week, and when he went on the air with Tucker Carlson, he pushed back on the second shooter/accomplice hysteria. Laxalt also properly fulfilled his current role by warning the public about scammers posing as charities and trying to steal their money.

The man whose office Sisolak and Laxalt are seeking, Gov. Brian Sandoval, did exactly what we have come to expect of him: He was unquestionably statesmanlike and beautifully human. No one loves Nevada as Sandoval does, and when he said his heart was broken, it showed.

Even though the president was properly muted and somber on his visit, as I watched Sandoval before he introduced Trump, I couldn’t help but think how presidential he looked. Sandoval was the face of a state in heart-crushing pain.

In contrast, I am not sure why Sen. Dean Heller was at Metro at all, nor why he had to follow Lombardo and tell the media he got “two hours of face time with the president at 30,000 feet (on Air Force One).” Or was he telling that to Danny Tarkanian and the GOP primary electorate?

And why did Heller, who told FOX that he would stand as a bulwark against any “watering down” of the Second Amendment, send out a release about bump stocks headlined, “Heller Urges Review of Obama-era Bump Stock Ruling.”

Heller’s first inclination in the wake of this tragedy is to blame Obama because bump stocks were not regulated during his term? Really? (I will let you all know when I find Heller speaking out against that ATF ruling in 2010.)

I also recoiled when this release from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto hit my inbox: “Sen. Cortez Masto to donate blood at United Blood Services. Members of the press planning to attend should RSVP…”

This is just grotesque. You want to give blood? Fine. Go give blood, as so many elected officials did without sending out a news release about it. Why draw attention to it? Why invite the media?

Plenty of politicians helped out at hospitals without sending out press releases or tweeting pictures. Some rose to the occasion by staying out of the occasion.

(To their credit, Heller and Cortez Masto put aside partisanship to send a joint letter to airlines asking for help for victims.)

And I am still not sure why Rep. Ruben Kihuen seemed to be at every news conference and was all over national TV. Yes, he went to a hospital early in the morning after the shooting and told horrifying stories of seeing victims dying in front of him. Hundreds of doctors and nurses witnessed the same; most did not see fit to grant interviews.

It’s also all well and good for Democratic lawmakers to propose a bump stock ban, even though that is political low-hanging fruit and none were willing to talk about any other restrictions. But ask yourself this: Why didn’t they first try to get Republican co-sponsors? A fool’s errand, perhaps, but one that would have showed they prized the unity they called for in their official remarks over something that would grab a headline.

I have said for many years covering this beat that I try not to look into politician’ hearts. Politics never really takes a holiday, and everything can be seen through that prism, fairly or unfairly. They all care as human beings to one degree or another, but how much they also cared about their media availabilities during this horrific time is telling.

There will be a way to judge the sincerity of our politicians going forward, to evaluate whether they were acting out of humanity or vanity. Let’s see whether any footage of them this week appears in any of their upcoming campaign ads.