Jeb Bush remark riles obama
WASHINGTON • Jeb Bush drew a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama on Friday after the Republican presidential candidate shrugged off any need for government action in the wake of the massacre of nine people at a community college in Oregon.
“Look, stuff happens,” Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida, said at a campaign event in South Carolina. “There’s always a crisis, and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not always the right thing to do.”
Obama, who in remarks the night before had denounced Congress and the U.S. political system for what he called its numbness to repeated gun massacres, responded: “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. They can decide whether they consider that ‘stuff happens.’”
The exchange between Obama and Bush reflected the paralysis that has settled over the issue of new gun control legislation in the United States. Virtually no member of Congress issued a statement after the Oregon shootings arguing for or against new gun control measures, and a number of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates were dismissive of new gun control measures as well. After Obama failed to get Congress to pass even modest gun control legislation after a 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 schoolchildren, the president has put more energy into legislation where he can find common ground with Republicans.
As a result, gun control ad- vocates have for now given up on a nationwide, universal background check system or other changes to gun regulations and are instead pushing for tougher gun laws in state legislatures. In the state of Washington, a ballot initiative imposed universal background checks over a recalcitrant legislature. In Oregon, the legislature also passed background checks, which went into effect several months ago.
Reacting to the Oregon shootings on Friday, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a Republican presidential candidate, said that “you can strip all the guns away but the people who are going to commit crimes or have problems are always going to have the gun.” Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another Republican presidential candidate, said there is too much focus “on what people are using to commit violence.”
The Democratic presidential candidates sought to offer a sharp contrast. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has called for a renewed effort to pass universal background checks and other gun measures, posted on Twitter: “What is wrong with us that we can’t stand up to the NRA and the gun lobby and the gun manufacturers they represent?”
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another Democratic presidential candidate, said that “we’ve got to do something,” although he added: “I don’t know that anybody knows what the magic solution is.”
Bush campaign officials, even before Obama’s rebuke, insisted that people were unfairly seizing on only part of the candidate’s comments. “It is sad and beyond craven that liberal Democrats, aided and abetted by some in the national media, would dishonestly take Governor Bush’s comments out of context,” said Allie Brandenburger, a campaign spokeswoman.
In response to a question about whether more prayer in schools might help reduce tragedies like the shooting in Oregon, Bush said in entirety: “Yeah it’s a — 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. It’s just, it’s very sad to see. But I resist the notion, I had this challenge as governor, because, 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.”
Although Bush did not say explicitly there was no need for new gun control legislation, it was implicit in his message.
In comments made before Obama spoke, he also said he had not made a mistake in his initial comments: “Things happen all the time. Things. Is that better?”
Obama ordered flags at the White House on Friday to halfstaff to honour the victims of the shooting.
Gun control advocates continued to say they have given up on Congress, which has more pro-gun lawmakers now than at the time of the Newtown massacre.
“We almost have to act as if Congress doesn’t exist,” Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the retiring mayor of Baltimore, said in an interview Friday. “I don’t know if Congress is numb or just has a conviction to inaction on this issue.”