host: michael fitzpatrick. guest: absolutely, the police are the heroes as far as i am concerned, because they are on the front lines in dealing with people more and treated, and medicated -- and and medicated. it is very difficult to manage of many times. thank you for all that you do in helping to get police trained of and understand how to manage. as i said earlier, many states will look at their civil commitment laws. i think that is important in situations like this. it takes too long to get people into treatment, no question about it. there needs to be early intervention. it is dangerous of all particularly for the person with the mental illness. if someone is psychotic, not realizing they are ill and on the streets. and finally, too often, when people are building their mental health programs, they forget that housing is what underpins the system. if you do not have a place to go that is affordable, safe, and something that you can live on potentially for the rest of your life, moving your to the communi

host: michael fitzpatrick. guest: absolutely, the police are the heroes as far as i am concerned, because they are on the front lines in dealing with people more and treated, and medicated -- and and medicated. it is very difficult to manage of many times. thank you for all that you do in helping to get police trained of and understand how to manage. as i said earlier, many states will look at their civil commitment laws. i think that is important in situations like this. it takes too long to get people into treatment, no question about it. there needs to be early intervention. it is dangerous of all particularly for the person with the mental illness. if someone is psychotic, not realizing they are ill and on the streets. and finally, too often, when people are building their mental health programs, they forget that housing is what underpins the system. if you do not have a place to go that is affordable, safe, and something that you can live on potentially for the rest of your life, moving your to the communi

michael fitzpatrick? guest: absoluty. i think your situation, unfortunately, in too many communities is the norm these days. it is too hard to find the treatment that you need it. my heart goes out to you. it is unfortunate that we hear these stories too often. we need to continue to educate college officials, police -- they are on the front lines in these cases treatment on this appears in many cases between the ages of 18 and 22 or 23. we need to be more proactive to get that early intervention. " the next call comesrom baltimore, our democrat line. caller: good morning. i like to thank god for 30 seconds of the c-span microphone to be able to say what i am going to say. i think if anybody can hear me, we neeto invest --ince we have been talking about investing in solar power and electric cars, why can't we get some people together and create some jobs for non-leth? if it was non-lethal plasma gun, or if we could create electric guns, to shock a person and he is in a coma for two and the days, but as far as shooting som

we get that from historians ellen fitzpatrick and michael beschloss. director of the oklahoma city national memorial and exam and reverend janet vincent from the episcopal church in washington. did the president do what what he needed to do tonight, michael? >> it was one of the best speeches he's ever given. not only the message but also the way he sort of came to life while giving it. he was sort of soaking in the atmosphere and you have a sense it was a speech written in advance but it gave the sense of someone who was giving it extemporaneously. >> ifill: ellen fitzpatrick, how did that speech compare to the kind of speeches we've seen presidents give in these situations before? >> i thought that this speech was a particularly personal speech on the president's part in which it was a little different, i think, than other speeches. it was intensely personal, evoking the lives of the victims of this tragedy, describing the heroism of everyday americans and the theme of children. this, after all, is a young father. we've seen him with his own children

here now two of the "newshour's" regular historians: presidential historian michael beschloss and ellen fitzpatrick, professor of history at the university of new hampshire. michael, some have suggested that helping people get through tragedies like the tucson tragedy is actually a major and critical function of presidents of the united states. do you agree? >> i do, but it's only been really in recent times. really probably the last 24 years since ronald reagan gave that speech that evening on the "challenger" accident. you know, i was thinking about this today, jim. you remember in 1963 there was a disaster, there was a nuclear attack submarine called the "tlesher." >> lehrer: yes. >> sank off cape cod. 129 people killed. so by what we expect of presidents, i thought, well, what was the ceremony in their memory, what speech did president kennedy give. didn't give one. he issues an executive order, flags were flown at half-staff, but in those days people didn't expect it. 1967 there was an "apollo" 1 disaster. three astronauts killed in a fire on the launch pad. lyndon johnson attended the funeral

we get that from historians ellen fitzpatrick and michael beschloss. director of the oklahoma city national memorial and exam and reverend janet vincent from the episcopal church in washington. did the president do what what he needed to do tonight, michael? >> it was one of the best speeches he's ever given. not only the message but also the way he sort of came to life while giving it. he was sort of soaking in the atmosphere and you have a sense it was a speech written in advance but it gave the sense of someone who was giving it extemporaneously. >> ifill: ellen fitzpatrick, how did that speech compare to the kind of speeches we've seen presidents give in these situations before? >> i thought that this speech was a particularly personal speech on the president's part in which it was a little different, i think, than other speeches. it was intensely personal, evoking the lives of the victims of this tragedy, describing the heroism of everyday americans and the theme of children. this, after all, is a young father. we've seen him with his own children

and we'll talk to historians michael beschloss and ellen fitzpatrick on how presidents have risen to these occasions. but first to the ceremony. a capacity crowd of 14,000 people began lining up last night for the chance to share their grief. ray suarez reports. >> suarez: the shootings brought america's best-known citizens to tucson: a retired supreme court justice and daughter of arizona, the president and first lady, cabinet members, congressional leaders, all gathered around gabrielle giffords' husband astronaut and navy captain mark kelly. after the strains of copeland's "fanfare for the common man" ended, a member of the faculty, a native american, opened with a blessing. >> please let us honor the families of those that have passed on, let us honor the families of those who are healing and also let us honor our own families let us remain humble. >> suarez: the master of ceremonies was university of arizona president robert shelton. >> among the many heroes this week was one of our students. daniel hernandez, jr. (cheers and applause) >> suarez: hernandez, an intern, was praise