 I want to express my sincere sadness over last night's senseless violence in Wilkinsburg. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and the friends of the victims of this terrible tragedy. Before I arrived I received a briefing on last night's shooting from county officials including County Executive Fitzgerald. Mayor Paduto was on that call also. And I want to commend local law enforcement for their swift response and I want to assure you that the state police, Pennsylvania state police is monitoring the situation and all of us at the state stand ready to offer and provide whatever assistance the city and the county would like us to provide. We all again express our deepest sympathy to the family. We don't know all the details yet of last night's tragedy but what we do know is that urban communities like Wilkinsburg and other towns and cities across Pennsylvania like Pittsburgh and like my own town of York, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia were just two nights ago in Philadelphia there were six people killed. We know they know all too well the horrific nature of gun violence in their neighborhoods. In Wilkinsburg 40%, 40% of the people live in poverty right here in the Pittsburgh area. There are four of the most impoverished school districts in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania right here in Pittsburgh. Gun violence is tied to poverty and we have to find ways to address the root causes of poverty in communities across Pennsylvania including in Wilkinsburg. I am working to restore the detrimental funding cuts to mental health programs that directly impact counties and municipalities across Pennsylvania but we need to do more in Harrisburg to support mental health services. We also must make sure that guns do not end up in the hands of criminals. We must make sure that we take steps toward improving background check laws and prevent criminals from gaining access to firearms. Mass shootings happen too often in this country and urban gun violence plays communities across the country and right here in Pennsylvania we have to do what we can to find a solution.