Max Baucus: “last week's deadly violence in the Halls of the United States Capitol touched the conscience of a nation. From coast to…”

“last week's deadly violence in the Halls of the United States Capitol touched the conscience of a nation. From coast to coast, Americans gathered to talk about the shootings. The coverage has dominated television, has dominated our newspapers, as well it should. There has been much discussion about who the assailant was, where he was born, where he lived, what might have caused him to do this dreadful deed. I must say, Mr. President, with deep regret, that this assailant spent a part of his life in my home State of Montana. We in Montana are even more grieved, even more touched, and find this tragedy even more tragic than others in the Nation--if that is possible. This man was not from Montana. We pride ourselves that those of us from our State have a great sense of honor, pride, duty, sense of family, sense of community. This person, unfortunately, spent some time in our State before he perpetrated this dreadful, violent, evil act. We are deeply grieved. We are very deeply sorry. I am speaking for the people of my State of Montana. Mr. President, there has been some conversation, too, about why things like this happen. Did somehow the system allow a person like this with some mental illness to fall between the cracks? The system we have for treating mental illness, was it somehow not adequate? Frankly, I believe that the system is inadequate.”