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11 January 2011
Last updated at 13:42 ET
Former President Bill Clinton has said the US political climate must change after the shooting of a US Congresswoman and others in Arizona.
Mr Clinton told the BBC the House of Representatives should take the lead in changing the US's political discourse.
"Nobody intends for this kind of thing to happen... but we do need to be careful about things we say," he said.
Some commentators suggest the vitriolic political rhetoric in the US may have contributed in some way to the attack.
Earlier on Tuesday, doctors said US Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was still in critical condition in hospital.
Jared Loughner, 22, is charged with the attack in Tucson, in which six people were killed, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, and more than a dozen injured. In an initial court appearance on Monday he was ordered jailed pending trial.
A Mass for the victims of Saturday's gun attack was set to take place on Tuesday evening in Tucson, Arizona, where the attack took place.
Memorials planned Dr Michael Lemole, who is treating Ms Giffords at the University Medical Center, told NBC Ms Giffords's brain was "working at a higher level" and she was responsive to commands. He said it was a "good thing" her condition had not changed.
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will attend memorial service on Wednesday evening at a basketball arena in Arizona.
He will address the crowd, and the service will include a Native American blessing, a moment of silence and a poetry reading.
Meanwhile, as the debate over personal security for US Congressmen - who typically have little or none - heated up in Washington DC, the US Senate sergeant-at-arms told US television he opposed lawmakers arming themselves against potential threats.
"I don't think introducing more guns into the situation is going to be helpful," Terrance Gainer said.
But he acknowledged that there had been 49 threats against US Senators over the past year, an increase on previous years.
Mr Loughner has been charged with five federal crimes - the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the first degree murder of two federal employees and the attempted murder of two federal employees - and may face additional state charges.
He walked into the courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona's capital city, wearing handcuffs and in a prison uniform, with a cut on the right side of his head. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson scheduled a preliminary court appearance for 24 January.
Mr Loughner is represented by Judy Clarke, a prominent defence attorney who represented an infamous parcel bomber and the man convicted of setting a bomb at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He did not contest the detention order.
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Bill Badger: 'I held Arizona gunman by throat'
The attack occurred on Saturday during an open-invitation meeting at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, which Ms Giffords had arranged for constituents.
Ms Giffords, 40, was shot from close range by the gunman, who then began shooting into the crowd. Among the dead were a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge.
It is unclear whether the US justice department will seek the death penalty against Mr Loughner, should he be convicted.
Ms Clarke is known as a staunch opponent of capital punishment who successfully evaded the death penalty for Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber parcel bomber, and Eric Robert Rudolph, a militant anti-abortion activist convicted in the Olympics bombing and bomb attacks on abortion clinics.
A total of 19 people were shot.
Day of mourning Flags across the US were flown at half mast on Monday, and Mr Obama said the nation was "grieving and shocked".
Lawmakers paid tribute to Ms Giffords and other victims of the mass shooting on the steps of the Capitol building, and in Tucson, small groups gathered in public spaces, in offices and in shops and stopped in silence for a minute.
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Mr Clinton told the BBC the House of Representatives should take the lead in changing the US's political discourse.
"Nobody intends for this kind of thing to happen... but we do need to be careful about things we say," he said.
Some commentators suggest the vitriolic political rhetoric in the US may have contributed in some way to the attack.
Earlier on Tuesday, doctors said US Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, was still in critical condition in hospital.
Jared Loughner, 22, is charged with the attack in Tucson, in which six people were killed, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, and more than a dozen injured. In an initial court appearance on Monday he was ordered jailed pending trial.
A Mass for the victims of Saturday's gun attack was set to take place on Tuesday evening in Tucson, Arizona, where the attack took place.
Memorials planned Dr Michael Lemole, who is treating Ms Giffords at the University Medical Center, told NBC Ms Giffords's brain was "working at a higher level" and she was responsive to commands. He said it was a "good thing" her condition had not changed.
The White House has announced that President Barack Obama will attend memorial service on Wednesday evening at a basketball arena in Arizona.
He will address the crowd, and the service will include a Native American blessing, a moment of silence and a poetry reading.
Meanwhile, as the debate over personal security for US Congressmen - who typically have little or none - heated up in Washington DC, the US Senate sergeant-at-arms told US television he opposed lawmakers arming themselves against potential threats.
"I don't think introducing more guns into the situation is going to be helpful," Terrance Gainer said.
But he acknowledged that there had been 49 threats against US Senators over the past year, an increase on previous years.
Mr Loughner has been charged with five federal crimes - the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the first degree murder of two federal employees and the attempted murder of two federal employees - and may face additional state charges.
He walked into the courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona's capital city, wearing handcuffs and in a prison uniform, with a cut on the right side of his head. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson scheduled a preliminary court appearance for 24 January.
Mr Loughner is represented by Judy Clarke, a prominent defence attorney who represented an infamous parcel bomber and the man convicted of setting a bomb at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He did not contest the detention order.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.Bill Badger: 'I held Arizona gunman by throat'
The attack occurred on Saturday during an open-invitation meeting at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, which Ms Giffords had arranged for constituents.
Ms Giffords, 40, was shot from close range by the gunman, who then began shooting into the crowd. Among the dead were a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge.
It is unclear whether the US justice department will seek the death penalty against Mr Loughner, should he be convicted.
Ms Clarke is known as a staunch opponent of capital punishment who successfully evaded the death penalty for Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber parcel bomber, and Eric Robert Rudolph, a militant anti-abortion activist convicted in the Olympics bombing and bomb attacks on abortion clinics.
A total of 19 people were shot.
Day of mourning Flags across the US were flown at half mast on Monday, and Mr Obama said the nation was "grieving and shocked".
Lawmakers paid tribute to Ms Giffords and other victims of the mass shooting on the steps of the Capitol building, and in Tucson, small groups gathered in public spaces, in offices and in shops and stopped in silence for a minute.
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