[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 520]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   LOOKING AT THE VIOLENCE IN TUCSON

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Madam Speaker, in the wake of the tragedy in Tucson 10 
days ago, there has been a lot of soul searching, a lot of 
introspection, and a lot of commentary about what was behind the 
tragedy there and what motivated Jared Loughner to take the action he 
did.
  It's become the judicious and kind of the politically correct thing 
to say, Oh, it was just one madman doing something. We can't ascribe 
responsibility to anything else.
  I think that's too easy. I think that's a cop-out.
  The fact is that Jared Loughner did not try to attack the community 
college that threw him out, any of the employers who had fired him, or 
anybody in his family. He singled out Gabrielle Giffords, an elected 
official of the United States Government. And one has to wonder whether 
all of the talk in recent years about tyrannical governments and the 
demonization of politicians did not in some way guide that madman to 
her instead of another target.
  I think we need to not just write this off as a senseless tragedy and 
an inexplicable one. We need to delve into it more deeply and decide 
whether the rhetoric that's out there in the media environment had 
something to do with this tragic event.

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