Pete Stark: “I join my colleagues in honoring Representative Giffords, mourning the victims of this senseless shooting, and lauding…”

“I join my colleagues in honoring Representative Giffords, mourning the victims of this senseless shooting, and lauding the heroism of those who endangered themselves to help those who were injured. Saturday's horrific shooting in Tucson of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, members of her staff, a federal judge, and innocent bystanders should never have happened. Representative Giffords was performing the most fundamental duty of a Member of Congress--she was making herself available to her constituents. It is something we all do--and something I strongly believe we must continue to do. My thoughts are with the victims, their family members and their friends at this time. I hope that we can learn from this tragedy. Violence has no place in our democracy. While the details of the shooting are still coming to light, we can all agree that political rhetoric and imagery that condones or encourages violence--whether from activists, party organizations, or politicians--is unacceptable. We can have differences of opinion on policy and still treat each other with humanity.”