Jeb Bush is coming under fire for reacting to calls for legislative action against gun violence with the comment, "stuff happens" – a day after a mass shooting at an Oregon community college killed nine people.
At a conservative forum in South Carolina on Friday, Bush was asked a long question by the state's attorney general, Alan Wilson, about whether there should be more prayer vigils at schools and other institutions to prevent tragedies, such as when someone "with an Uzi or a handgun" shoots "a bunch of people."
"We’re in a difficult time in our country and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this. I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else," the former Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate replied.
"It’s just very sad to see," he added. "I resist the notion that – I did – I had this challenge as governor. Look, stuff happens, there's always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it's not necessarily the right thing to do."
Later, he emphasized his remarks were "not related to Oregon," where on Thursday a gunman opened fire, killing nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg.
"Just for clarity here," he said. "Let’s make sure that we don’t allow this to get out of control," adding it's important to finding solutions to the deeper issue,
Yahoo News reports.
At a White House news briefing, President Barack Obama appeared stunned when asked to respond to the remark.
"I don’t even think I have to react to that one," he said. "I think the American people should hear that and make their own judgments based on the fact that every couple of months we have a mass shooting. And they can decide whether they consider that stuff happening."
Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
tweeted:
The comment elicited other critical tweets, ranging from sarcastic:
to disgusted:
Bush responded with a tweet of his own, scolding Democrats for taking him out of context:
Reuters contributed to this report.