President Obama on Friday dismissed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s comments from the same day about the mass shooting in Oregon, in which Bush said “stuff happens” that doesn’t always necessarily mean the federal government should act.
“I don’t even think I have to react to that one,” Obama said at the White House.
Instead, he again called on Congress to take up gun-control legislation and acknowledged that he has done everything within his executive power to address the issue alone. “The main thing I am going to do is talk about this and politicize this,” he said.
There are “hundreds of angry men” the world over but most don’t shoot up schools, movie theaters and military installments, Obama said. “Kids are running for their lives just trying to get to school,” Obama said.
“If we think that’s normal, then we have to own it … but I can’t do it by myself,” he said.
Obama’s criticism of Bush’s comments drew immediate reaction on Twitter, where many conservatives said Obama was overstating the way Bush addressed it. Bush said that as a governor, he saw that “stuff happens,” and that there are always crises, but made the point that these crises shouldn’t always be followed by federal action.
“I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this,” Bush said.
