Walter B. Jones: “as a Congress and as a Nation we are mourning the brave students and teachers whose lives were cut short in the…”

“as a Congress and as a Nation we are mourning the brave students and teachers whose lives were cut short in the senseless tragedy at Columbine High School. An overwhelming sense of sadness and grief has spread throughout our Nation as we wonder out loud what led our country to this point. How could two of our children, our Nation's future, who harbored so much anger and resentment, turn to violence before they turned for help? What frightens me even more than the event itself is that it is symptomatic of a Nation rapidly losing sight of the very values this country was built upon: faith, family and freedom. Mr. Speaker, in the past year and a half, at least 29 people have been killed as a result of school violence. In today's era of virtual reality games and the Internet, children witness gruesome acts of violence on a daily basis and can access pornography on the Internet with ease. And now our Nation's children are a simple click away from directions to build the same pipe bombs that two troubled young men used to wreak devastation on a small Colorado community. The events of the last week have reminded me of an old Chinese proverb that says, ``If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.'' Mr. Speaker, we are headed down a dangerous path.”