[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13126]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  16TH ANNIVERSARY OF CAPITOL SHOOTING

  (Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, the House 
observed a moment of silence to remember the loss of two heroes who 
gave their lives to protect others.
  The deaths of Detective John Gibson and Officer Jacob Chestnut are 
heartbreaking. An additional tragedy, however, is that this House has 
not taken action to prevent such incidents from happening again.
  The man who took the lives of the two police officers had paranoid 
schizophrenia and had previously been committed to a psychiatric 
hospital after threatening to kill the President, a hospital 
technician, and his neighbors. His paranoid delusions told him to 
attack the Capitol. Weston cycled in and out of emergency rooms as he 
refused medication and followup treatment.
  We know that the perpetrator had a brain disease, but our broken 
mental health system prevents others like Weston from being treated. 
The sad truth of this situation is it won't be long before we read in 
the headlines of another preventable tragedy.
  The memories of Detective Gibson and Officer Chestnut deserve our 
respect, their families our gratitude, but all families deserve our 
action.
  We must pass H.R. 3717, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis 
Act, because where there is no help there is no hope.

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