[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H1872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FIXING AMERICA'S MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

  (Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Yesterday, Dylan Quick, a 20-year-old 
student at Lone Star College in Texas, went on a rampage with a knife, 
hurting more than a dozen people. He told police he had fantasized 
since elementary school about stabbing people to death.
  Tucson shooter Jared Loughner told his psychologists that he wished 
he had been taking his anti-psychotic medication. If he had been, 
Loughner, who has schizophrenia, says the Tucson shooting might not 
have happened.
  A psychiatrist treating James Holmes told campus police a month 
before the Colorado theater attack that Holmes had homicidal thoughts 
and was a danger to the public. Holmes also exhibited signs of 
schizophrenia.
  Those with mental illness are generally more likely to be the victims 
rather than the perpetrators of violence, but those with untreated 
mental illness are at increased risk of violent behavior. Ten percent 
of all homicides are committed by individuals with schizophrenia, 
bipolar disorder, and other psychotic illnesses.
  When will we acknowledge that it is not just what is in the killer's 
hand that makes him dangerous, be it fist, knife or gun, but what is in 
his mind? We must take off the blinders and acknowledge the importance 
of the diagnosis of mental illness and severe mental illness. Let's fix 
our mental illness system.

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