[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2551-S2552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE TRAGEDY IN JONESBORO, ARKANSAS

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, let me just, first of all, express my 
profound thanks to the distinguished Senator from Illinois for her 
sensitivity and sincere compassion over what is the most traumatic 
event, perhaps ever, in my State. We have tornadoes and we lose a lot 
of lives in tornadoes, and we have a lot of property damage. But for 
just sheer trauma, this event is really

[[Page S2552]]

unique to us, as it would be to any State in the Nation. The grief is 
indescribable. The circumstances are indescribable. Nobody could 
speculate with any degree of accuracy as to what possesses an 11- or 
13-year-old child to do this. You can wonder how did they lay their 
hands on such an arsenal of weapons in order to perpetrate the crime? 
But at this point, I share the comments of the Senator from Illinois 
that it is premature to speculate on that because that will all come 
out as the investigation goes forward and is unwound.
  I simply want to say that it is a terrible plight in this country 
when such an event can even be thinkable, let alone happen. It is 
becoming all too frequent that you pick up the paper and find that this 
is happening in the school yards of America. This is not a high school, 
this is a middle school of 11-, 12-, and 13-year-old youngsters. 
Nineteen were injured and five are dead. It is an unspeakable horror. I 
know I speak for all the Members of the Senate in expressing our 
sincere grief, our condolences and sincere sympathies to all the people 
who have been affected in this, the parents and relatives of the 
children who have been injured and killed, and to those others who were 
not but will be traumatized and scarred by this for the rest of their 
lives.

  I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes.
  (The remarks of Mr. DeWine pertaining to the introduction of S. 1862 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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