[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       OFFERING PRAYERS TO THE GRIEVING AFTER A SENSELESS TRAGEDY

  (Mr. COOKSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COOKSEY. Mr. Speaker, there is little that can be said during 
such moments of tragedy such as what the Nation witnessed yesterday in 
Colorado. There are thousands of disaffected, terribly disturbed 
teenagers across the country, but few will resort to violence. In this 
case, two of them did. Their violence was of a self-destructive sort 
resulting in their own self-inflicted deaths after they took the lives 
of innocent children.
  It is all too easy for armchair psychologists to draw hasty 
conclusions about what explains this tragedy and the five other school 
shootings our Nation has witnessed over the past 2 years: guns, the 
culture, violence on television, nihilistic music and video games, 
frightening Internet sites. It is simply not possible to explain the 
cause.
  Who could explain why millions and millions of other teenagers, 
nearly all exposed to the same influences, do not choose to embark on 
such a senseless path? It is a senseless tragedy, nothing more. We can 
only offer our prayers to the grieving.

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