President Joe Biden was set to address the nation Tuesday night shortly after returning to the White House from a five-day trip to Asia that was bookended by “horrific” mass tragedy. Biden was on Air Force One on Tuesday afternoon when officials said a gunman acting alone killed at least 14 students and a teacher at a Texas elementary school. His had departed for Asia last week just two days after he met with victims’ families after a hate-motivated shooter killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store. The back-to-back tragedies served as a sobering reminder of the frequency and brutality of the American epidemic of mass gun violence.