Third Anniversary of the Northern Illinois University Shooting

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 3 years ago today, a mentally disturbed gunman walked into a campus lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and shot 22 students, killing 5 of them.

John Peters, the president of Northern Illinois University, the students, families, faculty, and employees pulled together after that tragedy, and I joined them at an observance with then Senator and now President Obama to acknowledge the grief they all felt and we shared. I am proud to report that the Northern Illinois University community is stronger and more resilient today than ever.

In the aftermath of the shooting, we asked a lot of questions about what led to it. Naturally, there were so many innocent victims. We asked what we could have done to prevent it. Three years later, we are still trying to make sense of it.

Some believe that nothing can be done if a disturbed person is determined to commit an act of violence. But I believe something can be done.

For a long time, we have overlooked a very obvious and very compelling fact. Many young people do not demonstrate serious mental illness until they have left their home and high school and go off to college. We have overlooked the mental health of students on campuses.

Many mental illnesses manifest in this period when young people leave the security of home, regular medical care, and the support of a network of family and friends.

A friend of our family, a young man, went to the same university over 30 years ago. Gary was a peculiar kind of his own type of person in high school. But within 30 days at the university, living in a college dorm, certain mental illnesses we were not even aware of manifested themselves and he suffered from schizophrenia the rest of his short life. It manifested itself at that campus.

It is easier for a young person's problems to go unnoticed when they are away from parents, old friends, and the high school community. Sometimes they get worse. People do not even notice.

The consequences of not detecting or addressing mental health needs among students are very real. Forty-five percent of college students report having felt so depressed it was difficult to function. Ten percent even contemplated suicide.

But while the needs for mental health services on campuses are rising, colleges are facing financial pressures of their own and are having trouble meeting the demand. A recent survey of college counseling centers indicates the average ratio of professional staff to students is 1 to 1,952, and at 4-year public universities it is 1 to every 2,600 students. It is little wonder that many young people with these problems go unnoticed.

Shortly after the tragedy at Northern Illinois University, I wrote a bill called the Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act to help schools meet the needs of their students. The bill would provide resources for colleges and universities to improve their mental health services and would call for the development of a public nationwide campaign to educate campus communities about mental health. We know troubled students who receive appropriate counseling and support can succeed in college and life. These services make an impact. Students who seek help are six time less likely to kill themselves.

By providing critical resources to colleges, the Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act would ensure that more young people receive the help they need before facing a crisis.

The main elements of this bill were included in a proposal to reauthorize the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act last year. I will continue to work on this legislation to get it enacted so we can give colleges the help they need to identify and treat students with mental health issues.

We also know from Northern Illinois University, as well as from the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Tucson, that we need to fill the gaps in the Federal gun background check system.

No one is proposing to take guns away from responsible American hunters and law-abiding citizens. The Supreme Court has made it clear that individuals have a right to own guns. I respect that decision. But the Court has also said that the second amendment is ``not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.''

For years, laws on the books have prohibited those with histories of serious mental illness and substance abuse from buying guns. State agencies and Federal agencies need to work more closely together to make sure the background check system is fully updated with this critical information.

Today is a time for our country to remember the lives and mourn the loss at Northern Illinois University of five promising young Americans whose life stories were cruelly cut short 3 years ago. But as we look back, we must also--as they say at Northern; their slogan--move ``Forward, Together Forward'' in the true Northern Illinois University spirit.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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