we will all stand together as a community we will all stand together as an army and we will all stand together as a nation. we will lift each other up with our compassion, our strength, and resilience because that's who we are. the strength of our nation is our army. the strength of our army is our soldiers. the strength of our soldiers is our families. and that's what makes us army strong. thank you very much. the secretary of the army, the honorable john m. mccue.

>> good afternoon. mr. president, mrs. obama, sir, ma'am, thank you so much for being here. it means so much to these soldiers, to this army that their commander in chief and the first lady would be here to share in this great sorrow. deputy secretary of defense fox, chairman and mrs. dempsey, chief, and mrs. odierno, distinguished members of congress, lieutenant governor duhurst, lieutenant general and mrs. milly and most of all to the men and women of ft. hood, soldiers, family members, civilians, our army family, we are here again, far too soon, to

mourn more loss all too great as an army, we accept this is a dangerous profession. and all who wear this wonderful uniform and pledge to defend our nation and its way of life understand they may one day be called to make that ultimate sacrifice. but inside these gates, behind these walls, we expect a much different order of things. a special sense of safety and security, of brotherhood, simply a sense of home. and yet, for a second time, horrible violence and unspeakable tragedy have breached these walls and torn through our very souls. and once more, yet again, we come together to grieve and to

remember, to console one another, and to give what strength we possibly can to the victims and to their families. sergeant first class daniel ferguson, staff sergeant carlos lazaney-rodriguez, and sergeant timothy owens, all knew, lived with, and accepted that inherent danger comes with being an american soldier. each deployed at various times during the longest period of war in the history of this great nation, that they came back, came back safely, each and every time only to lose their lives here at home, a place of presumed safety, serves to greatly magnify the senselessness of it all. of course these men weren't just soldiers, they were so much more. they were comrades, they were

friends, they were leaders, and, of course, they were sons and husbands and fathers. they are rightly to be long remembered, mourned, and forever celebrated. we still have much to learn about what happened here last week, but already, we've heard the stories of remarkable courage. extraordinary sacrifice, actions that kept that moment of horror from becoming even greater. we may never know how many lives were saved or how many others might have been lost were it not for these heros, but know this, we are incredibly grateful for their bravery and more humbled by their selflessness. 150 years ago, president abraham lincoln penned a letter to a mother who lost five sons during the civil war. the president said, i feel how

weak and fruitless must be any word of mine at a time of grief and loss so overwhelming. to the families of those we lost, to those recovering from their wounds, i truly wish i had the words that might begin to heal your heart and heal your bodies, express fully the depth of our collective sadness. matthew chapter 5 verse 4 teaches blessed are they who mourn for they shall be blessed. today, once again, we mourn together, together as a community, as an army, and as a nation. today, all days, we will celebrate these truly remarkable lives, cour rains you and noble men, taken from us far too soon. and we hope and we pray that in

some small way, together by our memories and through our collective heartache, we will bring some comfort to their families, friends, and comrades in arms. they will be truly and always missed. so thank you for joining us, god bless our fallen heros, those still struggling toward recovery, god bless the united states of america, and this glorious army who keeps us free.

>> in our lives and our joys and in our sorrows, we've learned that there is a time for every matter under heaven. we laugh and we weep, we celebrate and we mourn. we serve in war and we pray for peace. but scripture also teaches that alongside the temporal, one thing is eternal. love bears all things believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. love never ends.

deputy secretary fox, general dempsey, secretary mccue, generals odierno and milly and most of all, the families of the soldiers who have been taken from us, the wounded, those who have returned to duty and those still recovering and the entire community of ft. hood, this great place, it is love tested by tragedy, that brings us together again. it was love for country that inspired these three americans to put on the uniform and join the greatest army that the world has ever known. sergeant first class daniel ferguson, staff sergeant carlos

lazaney-rodriguez, sergeant timothy owens. danny and carlos joined two decades ago in a time of peace and stayed as the nation went to war. timothy joined after 9/11 knowing he could be sent into harm's way. between them they deployed nine times, each served in iraq. danny came home from afghanistan just last year. they lived those shining values, loyalty, duty, honor, that keep us strong and free. it was love for the army that made them the soldiers they were. for danny, said his fiancee,

being in the army was his life. carlos said a friend, was the epitome of what you would want a leader to be in the army. timothy, helped counsel his fellow soldiers. said a friend, he was always the person you could go to talk to. and it was love for their comrades, for all of you, that defined their last moments as we've heard, when the gunman tried to push his way into that room, danny held the door shut, saving the lives of others, while sacrificing his own. and it's said that timothy, the counselor, even then, gave his life walking toward the gunman, trying to calm him down.

for you, their families, no words are equal to your loss. we are here on behalf of the american people to honor your loved ones and offer whatever comfort we can. but know this, we also draw strength from you. for even in your grief, even as your heart breaks, we see in you that eternal truth, love never ends, to the parents of these men, as a father, i cannot begin to phantom your anguish, but i know that you poured your love and your hopes into your sons. i know that the men and soldiers they became, their sense of

service, and their patriotism, so much of that came from you. you gave your sons to america and just as you will honor them always, so, too, will the nation that they served. to the loves of their lives, timothy's wife billy and danny's fiancee kristen, these soldiers cherished the army, but their hearts belonged to you. that's a bond that no earthly power can ever break. they've slipped from your embrace, but know that you will never be alone. because this army and this nation, stands with you for all the days to come to their children, we live in a dangerous world, and your fathers served to keep you safe and us safe.

they knew you had so much to give to our country that you would make them proud. timothy's daughter lori already has. last wednesday night she posted this message on-line, i just want everyone to think for a moment, love your family, she said, because you never know when they're going to be taken from you. i love you daddy. and to the men and women of ft. hood, as already been mentioned, part of what makes this so painful is that we've been here before, this tragedy tears at wounds so raw from five years ago. once more soldiers who survived, foreign war zones, were struck down here at home where they're supposed to be safe, we still do

not yet know exactly why, but we do know this, we must honor their lives, not in word or talk, but indeed in truth. we must honor these men with a renewed commitment to keep our troops safe, not just in battle but on the home front as well. and in open society and vast bases like this we can never eliminate every risk, but as a nation, we can do more to help counsel those with mental health issues, to keep firearms out of the hands of those who are having such deep difficultyieies a military we must do everything in our power to secure our

facilities and spare others this pain. we must honor these men by doing more to care for our fellow americans living with mental illness, civilian and military. today four american soldiers are gone, four army families are devastated. as commander in chief i'm determined that we will continue to step up our efforts to reach our troops and veterans who are hurting, to deliver to them the care that they need, and to make sure we never stigmatize those who have the courage to seek help finally, we must honor these men by recognizing that they were members of a generation that is borne the burden of our security in more than a decade of war. now our troops are coming home and by the end of this year our war in afghanistan will finally

be over. in an era when fewer americans know someone in uniform, every american must see these men and these women, our 9/11 generation, as the extraordinary citizens that they are. they love their families, they excel at their jobs, they serve their communities, they are leaders and when we truly welcome our veterans home, when we show them that we need them not just to fight in our countries, but to build up our own, that our schools and our businesses, our communities and our fashion, will be more successful and america will be stronger and more united for decades to come. sergeant first class daniel

ferguson, staff sergeant carlos lazaney-rodriguez, sergeant timothy owens, like the 576 ft. hood soldiers who have given their lives in iraq and afghanistan, they were taken from us much too soon. like the 13 americans we lost five years ago, their passing shakes our soul. and in moments such as this, we summon once more what we've learned in these hard years of war. we reach within our wounded hearts, we lean on each other, we hold each other up, we carry on, and with god's amazing grace, we somehow bear what seems unbearable.

love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. love never ends. may god watch over these american soldiers, may he keep strong their families whose love endures, and may god continue to bless the united states of america with patriots such as these. >> ladies and gentlemen, at this

time staff sergeant reese from the first cavalry division will sing "amazing grace." ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ i once was lost

but now i'm found ♪ ♪ was blind but now i see ♪ ♪ 'twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved ♪ ♪ how precious did that grace appear

the hour i first believed ♪ ♪ when we been here 10,000 years ♪ ♪ bright shining as the sun ♪ we've known less days to sing god's grace ♪ ♪ then when we first begun

>> ladies and gentlemen at this time, the chaplin will provide a scripture reading. >> a reading from psalm 46. god is our refuge and strength, and ever present help in trouble. therefore we will not fear, though, the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging the lord all mighty is with us, be still, and know that he is god, the sol mist words here describe a world that is in chaos, things are not as they should be. some great force has shaken the foundations of life, for all of us here today, our worlds have

been shaken by the tragic events of last week, by the sudden and unexpected loss of those we loved, of those who are part of our team, a part of our family, there is a poignant poem that captures the feelings experienced by the psalmist and may capture your feelings as well, the poem simply says, when you lose someone you love, it hurts. it hurts in the middle of the night, it hurts in the middle of the day, it hurts in the middle of your stomach. it hurts to lose someone you love. the reason it hurts so much, is because we love so much. we love the one who is no longer with us, husband, son, father, brother, friend. we love them and now they're gone and we grieve their passing but we must never forget that we do not walk through the valley of grief by ourselves.

the psalm recognize this, when he placed book ends of reassurance around his description of the chaos, he began his words by saying, god is our refuge and strength, and ever present help in trouble, and he ended by saying the lord all mighty is with us, god walks with us and even carries us when life hits us hard. but not only does god walk with us, others come alongside to walk the journey, family members, close friends, fellow soldiers, sometimes total strangers, all come alongside to support us and to lift us and to, if possible, ease our burden and carry our grief. we never have to walk alone. there's a contemporary song that describes this powerful truth, part of the chorus, sung as one looking back over the road of

life, says "scars and struggles on the way, but the joy our hearts can say, never once did we ever walk alone, never once did you leave us on our own, you are faithful, god, you are faithful." as we walk through this valley as a family, as a community, and as a nation, let us each one choose to not walk the journey alone. embrace the healing, comfort, and strength that god offers you. embrace your faith community and allow them to care for you. embrace your family and friends and draw strength from their presence and in our context, embrace your battle buddies, your leadership, your brothers and sisters in arms, and choose to never walk alone. to the families of daniel,

carlos and timothy, i reiterate you are forever a part of our army family. we love you, we are standing with you, you will never walk alone. >> ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the benediction and remain standing for the roll call, the rendering of honors to the fallen with three rifle volleys and the playing of "taps." >> let us pray. oh, god as we bring this ceremony to a close, we find strength in the fact that your love and support is never closed to us in our time of need. in the days ahead, we pray that you may lift our hearts, restore our joy of life and of living, and grant us the wisdom to resurrect our purpose and discover new meaning from the ashes of these dark days. bless us with the spirit that

can forgive, shine upon us the divine light that is true, good, noble and pure, so that we may heal and be healers in this time of great sadness, in your holy name, we pray, amen. >> the role call is an army tradition, sergeants major routinely call the units roll after battle to account for all soldiers under the command. staff sergeant gram ki. >> here sergeant. >> sergeant lincoln. >> here, sergeant. >> sergeant first class ferguson. sergeant first class daniel ferguson. sergeant first class daniel michael ferguson.

specialist wilson. >> here, sergeant. >> private first class rose. >> here sergeant major. >> staff sergeant lazaney-rodriguez. staff sergeant carlos lazaney-rodriguez. staff sergeant carlos alberto lazaney-rodriguez. specialist scott. >> pv 2 anderson. >> here sergeant major. >> sergeant owens. sergeant timothy owens. staff sergeant timothy wayne owens.

♪ ♪

♪ >> special coverage of the memorial for the victims of last week's tragedy at ft. hood. good afternoon. i'm toure. emotions are running high at the largest military base in america as we remember three people who sacrificed their lives for us at war only to lose their lives on american soil. three sergeants, daniel ferguson, florida, native who just returned from afghanistan, and was trying to hold a door shut to stop the shooter. carlos lazaney-rodriguez from puerto rico, who planned to retire from the military after two decades of service, and

timothy owens, an army counselor, who served in iraq and hailed from central illinois. his mother called him soon after learning of the shooting, fully expecting him to pick up the phone, and later learned her worst nightmare had come true. 16 other people were hurt in this tragedy, all of them military personnel. today our nation's commander in chief, president barack obama, honored all of them and memorialized those we lost along with millions of us. as we continue our coverage, we have nbc sarah dallof at ft. hood and two american heros, colonel jack jacobs and general barry mccaffrey. sarah, start with you, the mood there, was quite heavy. we saw a lot of people in tears. describe the mood as you felt it? >> very somber and very sad here this afternoon as we say good-bye to these three soldiers and pledge support to their families. the president speaking before the crowd of soldiers, their

families and dignitaries saying even in your grief as your hearts break, we see in you that eternal truth, love never ends. these three soldiers were family men. they had wives, fiancees, children, people who loved and cared about them and who were frantically dialing their cell phones that horrible afternoon, just one week ago, waiting for them to pick up, willing for them to answer the phone and never ever getting that answer. it's an eerie remembrance of five years ago when the same thing happened, nadal hassan shooting 13, wounding more than 30 here in 2009 and now another tragedy, another rampage here among this tight knit military community. the president also spoke about the importance that as a nation, we need to do more to counsel people with mental health issues and more to keep the guns out of hands of those having deep issues. the military hasn't come out with a definitive motive here and don't believe that the shooting was a direct result of

ivan lopez's mental issues which included depression and anxiety but are stressing the importance now of reaching out to those who suffer from those problems and getting them the help and the support that they need. military investigators have confirmed that there was an argument about leave shortly before the shooting and during that eight-minute rampage, ivan lopez allegedly fired more than 35 shots, some of the victims they believe were targeted. at least one of the dead was involved in that argument and at least one of the wounded. but the others they say were completely random. soldiers just going about their everyday lives and the speakers today touched on that. they say there is somewhat of an underbds stabbeding when you -- understanding when you lose a man in battle, grief stricken but an understanding. in a case like this on your home soil, a place you're supposed to be safe, it's that much more heart wrenching to have that happen. back to you. >> colonel jack, what sarah said, this is a heart wrenching move, heart wrenching story. it is hard to see soldiers

crying, but when you lose three folks like this, at home, that is a particular pain. your thoughts on this? >> it's much more difficult in a situation like this than in combat. when you're in combat no matter how scared you are, and all soldiers are scared in combat, you think that -- and you're right, whatever you do, can have an impact on whether or not you survive, whether or not your buddies survive, whether or not you accomplish the mission. in a circumstance like this, you're absolutely helpless. so in addition to the grief there's going to be have to be a lot of grief counseling at ft. hood and a long aftermath, long after this ceremony. very, very tragic thing. we have to redouble our efforts, identify people who are having problems, if it looks bad it is bad. so the chain of command and their comrades have to be attentive to what's going on. we have to be speedy about addressing these problems and do

a much better job of making a decision on what kind of treatment to give and getting troops with problems out of the unit as quickly as possible. >> yeah. general mckcaffrey i want to bring you in. such an emotional service and a common theme around unity and president obama said it is love tested by tragedy that brings us together in moments like this. tell us a bit more about that. what is something like this do to bring the military closer together? >> well, i was very glad to see the president there. i thought his words were right on target and the secretary of the army and chief staff of the army and have the senior leadership show up is very important. jack jacobs is entirely right. this armed forces, our army, has almost 60,000 killed and wounded. they are not unaccustomed to combat. ft. hood has had a couple thousand killed and wounded. so they're accustomed to taking some real tough shots, but not in their home base. ft. hood, these large military

installation, marine, army, navy, air force, are the safest communities in america. people don't lock their doors. there's a handful of incidents on a given week. and to have something like this strike out of the blue, is really a punch in the gut. but again, they're really tough people. i'm glad the chain of command showed up. texas is a wonderful supportive environment for the armed forces. so they'll get through it. >> colonel, what do we do to ensure events like this don't reduce the ability of people in the army to work effectively together? obviously they face normal -- enormous external security threats, they have to be able to work together in an environment of trust and don't want them focused on the idea they might be at risk from some sort of internal risk? >> a commander is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in his unit and that includes the morale of the unit and difficult circumstances like this, which is general mccaffrey said, they encountered all the time in combat, it takes the commander's leadership and

leadership of the entire chain of command to make sure that everybody comes together. and that's exactly what's going to happen in this particular case. like general mccaffrey says, they'll get over it, but get over it because they are all together, they'll feel they're all together in this and the commanders and subordinate commanders will make sure that happens. they're close to their troops. they may have to get even closer to their troops, but that's -- that closeness is what's going to take them out of it. >> general, the colonel is talking about the broader military family and how they come together after a tragedy. does the broader military family and not just the folks who are enlisted but also the families that serve along with them, do they mourn and recover a little bit differently because they have a greater familiarity with death than the rest of us? >> well, i don't know how to answer that. a lot of my -- jack and my groups all fought in combat in vietnam. that was a giant war with you

know for god's sakes, 300,000 wounded. i always tell people that mothers and loved ones never actually recover. it's a permanent aspect of their life going forward they learn how to deal with it and cope. if anything, losses in combat may be easier to deal with because as jack said earlier, there's this incredible bond in these combat units which in our case now, the last 12 years, the armed forces has been at war in iraq, afghanistan and the global war on terrorism. so i don't think they ever really get over this but i think they'll put it in context very rapidly. they are resilient, tough people, men and women, i mean we saw this young female mp step forward in the line of fire to take him on. they'll have to think through their internal security but i wouldn't want to overintellectualize this either. the broader problem in america society how do you keep people

with mental health problems having access to weapons and, you know, here it is eight minutes, 30 some odd rounds, three dead, 13 wounded, it's a tragedy. we got to sort through, separating the u.s. population that has challenges from firearms. men stalking women. we have to think through this and come up with real solutions. >> colonel makes a great point you never fully recover from something like this. but how do you, as someone who has devoted your life to serving this country, how do you find peace when something like this happens, not from being deployed but from a shooting? >> well, it seems like -- it seems terribly pointless. you feel weak. you want to do something but you can't do anything. that kind of frustration makes it extremely difficult to heal even people who had nothing to do with this who watched it on television, even if they had nobody they know in uniform, either at ft. hood or any other

place, there's a tremendous feeling of frustration which is why general mccaffrey is correct and through the political process we all have to do and the social process we have to do a lot more to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. combat is a completely different exercise altogether. you know what the risks are. you have an expectation that you'll be able to affect the outcome and if you do your best, even that may not be good enough. but in peace time it's a completely different story. we changed everything that we did in the service with respect to deployment in this last war. when general mccaffrey and i went to war we went as replacements. the unites we joined were already in the field engaged with the enemy and we came in to replace other people who were no longer there either because they row tated home or got killed or wounded. we don't do that anymore. we do something much better. we take entire units who have trained together, lived together

in the states, who know each other, who have families that know each other, and we move the units to combat with a fight together and they return home together. and while they're gone, their families remain at ft. hood, for example, going through life as normally as they possibly can, but reinforcing each other's strength. think about what would have happened in this last war, as frustrating as it was, if we did it the way we had done it in vietnam and previous wars, where units didn't -- were already over there and we just picked people at random and off they went to fight. you had 28 days to get your family out of quarters and find some other place for them to live. things would have been much, much better. military service is on the right track and i think they're going to get there. >> general mccaffrey the general talks to something you spoke to, we need to honor the lives of the soldier who is died, in deed and truth, counsel those with health issues to keep firearms

out of those having deep difficulties and as president he's going to step up efforts to engage with people in the military facing mental health issues and ensure that people with those issues are not stigmatized. what does that mean on a specific implementation level? what are steps that should be taken now to better reach out to and support those with mental health issues? ? well, probably the biggest challenge to the nation. in the military, we listen to lieutenant general mark mill yi the first day when he had the press conference. he and the officer leadership of the forces are products of 12 years of warfare. these people are utterly magnificent. there's been a darwinian process by which we selected them. they're good fighters. that's why they're in the position they are. and he was adamant, wasn't going to have concealed weapons on ft. hood. so, you know, it's easier for us in the armed forces, we don't --

our soldiers to register their weapons, we can control the gates to some extent, you know, not effectively with 150,000 people coming and going, but we have the legal authority to do all that. now in a country at large, half of us are armed and a significant number of us, 5%, pick a number you believe, have mental health. so how you get law enforcement and the mental health community to talk to each other and not violate the law, pretty tough challenge. this guy was not off gassing tremendous signals apparently of mental instability. he had only been in combat for a four month tour, really wasn't exposed to direct action, he wasn't yet under psychiatric care. i don't want ft. hood to flange late themselves in trying to find wrong doing. we got a big problem in the country and we have to face up to it. >> colonel jack, both of you are talking about the way that we

select soldiers and, obviously, the overwhelming majority of soldiers are strong and admirable men and women who do the right thing day in and day out. but do you notice some in the sliver? different way some folks are reacting to war and military life differently than generations past? is there some way these sort of events are unique to the modern era that didn't happen in the past? >> i don't think so. i haven't made an exhaustive study of it and you could probably come up with some independent variables about the nature of combat, how we select troops. don't forget we didn't have a draft, we have no universal service. we had an extremely small percentage of the american population in uniform defending 320 million people there's something wrong with that. that's going to have a tendency to isolate the people in uniform for feel more isolated from the rest of society than they probably should be. but at the end of the day, we

have to recognize this, the law of large numbers says that no matter how vigilant you are, some percentage of people are going to be problems. one way or the other. now for the sort of bad news/good news story. we're about ready to make the united states army specifically and the services generally smaller than they were before the japanese attack on pearl harbor. so we're going to have fewer problems, much more selective and all the rest of that stuff. it's not going to keep incidents like this from having -- happening either in the military -- in the military at all, i mean it's going to happen, but probably going to happen with less frequency. second thing to consider, which is -- it's actually bad news, i don't like to see our military establishment as small as it's going to be. the second thing to keep in mind we're focusing on attention on it much more than we used to. i'm not casting anything in the media, we're all part of the

media, the fact of the matter is we're living in a revolution of in the distribution of information we have not seen since the invention of the printing press. everything and anything that happens is immediately available to everybody. we don't expect this sort of stuff to happen in the military. but we can see it because of the nature of the distribution of information and we're shocked by it because we know it whereas before we didn't. >> colonel jack jacobs, barry mccaffrey, thank you for your inviting and thoughts on this day. coming up on this sober day, another tragedy unfolding at this hour, that terrible stabbing at a pittsburgh area high school. new details are breaking right now and we will bring them to you after this. ♪ ♪

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we're back with the breaking news of the day. a stabbing spree at a suburban high school outside of pittsburgh. local officials and police are expected to brief us within the hour but here is the latest. at least 19 students and one security guard were injured.

some criticalally after police say a 16-year-old began stabbing students in classrooms and hall ways around 7:15 this morning. that suspect is now in police custody and being questioned as we speak. police believe he was wielding two knives. a security, a school security guard in franklin regional assistant principal are being heralded as heroes for reportedly tackling the suspect and being it to an end. the school superintendent spoke earlier. >> today our school community experienced a terrible tragedy. the actions and response of our staff, students and local law enforcement officers saved many lives. >> msnbc's richard has arrived at the scene. what are we learning? >> goo day to you. as you started with this segment by saying they're concerned right now about those who are injured. those 19 teens and that adult. those doctors saying none of the

injuries were light. that they were serious. now the concern of course is how will they recover? and it is expected that they will all be fine at the end. this is the latest from the chief medical officer at forbes hospital. >> the wounds were all due to, they were all knife wounds. most of them were to the lower abdomen. and they seemed to actually almost have a pattern. most to the right lower abdomen and the right flank and that created the criticality. yes, they do. yes, they do. i would say to just summarize to a degree, two of them have relatively severe injuries to their abdominal organs and they're undergoing surgery right now. and another one has injuries to the upper abdomen.

>> reporter: and one of those students saved some are saying by another student. she had put her hand and pressure on one of the stab wounds. perhaps increasing his chances of surviving from this horrible incident. right behind me you can see the high school. this is part of a three-school complex. after that incident was locked down around 7:37, then the students were brought to the middle which is right behind me and the high school. that's when parents came to collect them. i was just at one of the local fast food restaurants talking with one of the workers there who had seen some of the students here go to that location to eat after and she was saying that they seemed fine, they seemed okay but of course a little bit shaken. back to you. >> thanks so much. let's bring in msnbc analyst, jim cavanagh, thank you for joining us. what we do know was it was a knife attack and many of us are saying how is something like this possible given that it was

a knife used. what does that tell you about the subject? what does that tell you about what his motives were? >> it is hard to same deep anger i would say rate off the bat. deep anger to stab 19 people. sort of a berserk type of operation. the witnesses saying that the person looked like they were crazy or in a daze, i mean, a person totally focused on causing these injuries. certainly, the motive, we'll find out, i would say. mostly in these high school tragedies. we do find out, they talk to other people, there's interaction with students and faculty members and we'll find out things that were bothering this young man and he will go on trial for aggravated assault in multiple cases here. >> jim, what sort of security measures does one take in response to this sort of event? obviously there are fewer things that can be done to control the spread of knives and guns. are there ways for schools and

governments to respond to events like this? >> there is, josh. that's a great question. the first thing in the sharp edge attack, you can use a chair or a table. the first thing is distance. it is not like a firearm where they can shoot you when you're running away or kill you at a distance. they have to be in proximity to you, immediately next to you, to be able to injure you. so get away. secondly if you can't get away, you get a chair or a table, get something to fight them off. there's a lot of things that can be done. i think leveraging technology in all these shootings is the next step and we're not doing a very good job collectively. >> you talk about that proximity issue. to stab somebody, you have to be pretty close to them. probably pretty angry at them or at least at the world rather than using a gun which you can fire far away and is often rather cowardly. >> right. exactly. this guy starts this in a crowded high school. in the morning gathering process

so there are people all over the place. the first person that reports it is the school resource officer. that is a police officer or a deputy sheriff who has a firearm. but it will be interesting to see how many minutes until they were able to render the situation safe. in other words, from the first report to the uniformed police officer until he was stopped. so we've heard 15 minutes. i don't know if that will hold up. we need to close that gap. we can close that gap through technology. i know we can do it and we can leverage it and then we'll get these deaths and injuries shorter and shorter and shorter. >> still a lot we have to learn about this horrific event. jim cavanagh, thank you so much for joining us. that does it for a very busy hour of "the cycle." kills bugs inside and prevents new ones for up to a year. ortho home defense max. get order. get ortho®.

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one week after the deadly shooting at ft. hood left three soldiers dead and 16 wounded, thousands gathered in memorial this afternoon in texas, including president obama who spoke just moments ago. it is the second time in five years that the president has attended a memorial service for victims at the ft. hood army base. it is wednesday, i am a 9th and this is now. >> to the men and women of ft. hood, it has already been mentioned part of what makes this so painful is that we've been here before. this tragedy tears a wound so raw from five years ago. we can never eliminate every risk. but as a nation we can do more to help cel