contemplated suicide. 37% knew someone who has taken their own life while 45% know someone who s attempted to take their own life. the group behind the survey, iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, represents nearly 200,000 people, many of whom are young vets. msnbc contributor bill briggs joins me now with his report on this. bill, we ve talked so much about the suicide rate and the problems, though, that these vets cite, sadly, are things that you would think could be addressed by our government, including getting their benefits when they retire and some other things that can be taken care of for them. yeah, the backlog on benefit receiving their benefits is enormous. that s contributing to this problem and has been for several years. it s such a complex issue, and it involves so many realities of coming home from war, reintegrating with your family,
weaver just asked the question, what next? what happens here in aurora? let me bring in two guests. bill briggs, nbc news contributor. also covered columbine which is just 12, 13 miles down the road, and tom mouser, whose son daniel was killed at column comen cull booin who was just 159 years old. all of us were at columbine, and how does the community cope in the aftermath? such a shock. everybody we ve spoken to seems to be in the say the of shock. that s the first phase. we have to get through it again. it s horribly familiar. you work through it once again. this is a community with some practice, unfortunately, on thousand handle this, how to cope, how to help the victims, how to help the police officers and the paramedics and stuff. unfortunately, we re pretty good at it. and, tom what would you say?
bill briggs, great reporter. i m glad to see you again. i m sorry under such circumstances and you as well, tom. thank you so much. and for your great work that you have been doing. we really appreciate it. that s going to do it from here in aurora, colorado. and we re remembering the victims, 12 who were killed, 58 who were injured. complete coverage continues tomorrow on msnbc. i will see you back here for special coverage tomorrow afternoon. i m chris jansing. thank you. [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about.
sympathy to the victims here in aurora, colorado, and all politicians have suspended political ads on television here in colorado. but as marcus weaver just asked the question, what next, what happens here in aurora, let me bring in two guests. bill briggs is an nbc news contributor, also covered columbine, which is just 12, 13 miles down the road. and tom, whose son daniel was killed at columbine, who was just 15 years old. bill, all of us were at columbine and experienced it in our own ways. how does a community cope when in this aftermath it s just such a shock? everyone we ve spoken to seems to be in a state of shock? i think that s the first stage, we all have to get through that again. we ve gone through this once, it s so horribly familiar. we work through that once again. this is a community now with some practice on how to handle this, how to cope, how to help the victims, how to help the
children. that was the president earlier today, both he and mitt romney issued statements of sympathy to the victims here in aurora, colorado, and all politicians have sus spented political ads on television here in colorado. but as marcus weaver just asked the question, what next, what happens here in aurora, let me bring in two guests. bill briggs is an nbc contributor who also covered columbine which is just 12 or 13 miles down the road and this man s son was killed at columbine and was just 15 years old. bill, all of us were at columbine and experienced it in our own ways. how does a community cope when in this aftermath it s just such a shock? everyone we ve spoken to seems to be in a state of shock? i think that s the first stage, we all have to get through this again. we ve gone through this once,