Dale Bumpers: “let me just, first of all, express my profound thanks to the distinguished Senator from Illinois for her sensitivity and…”

“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 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.…”