Gee, JEB!, "stuff happens"-- how about you getting knocked out of the presidential race, and we just say "stuff happens"? Would you like that?

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Jeb Bush: ‘Stuff happens,’ but no need for new gun regulations
By Garance Franke Ruta, October 2, 2015

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sparked a flurry of condemnations on Twitter Friday after New Yorker correspondent Ryan Lizza tweeted out: “In Greenville, South Carolina, Jeb Bush, arguing against calls for gun control after major tragedy, says, ‘stuff happens.’”

As soon as the 2016 hopeful’s full remarks were public, defenders also took to social media to argue that Bush was being taken out of context in the wake of Thursday’s mass murder in Oregon, which reopened the highly charged national debate over gun control laws.

Eddie Vale, vice president of Democratic political action committee American Bridge — which is known for sending trackers to Republican events in hopes of catching the candidates saying something that later can be used against them — was quick to tweet out video of the exchange.



Bush, responding to a questioner who asked about the prayer vigils that follow every mass shooting, and whether prayers would have more power if they were allowed in the schools before a tragedy rather than after, replied that action was not always the right move immediately after a tragedy.

“It’s been a difficult time in our country, and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this,” Bush said. “I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It’s just, it’s very sad to see, but I resist this notion and I did — I had this challenge as governor — we had, 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.”

Bush’s remarks were continuing a line of argument he’d been making in response to an earlier question about the Second Amendment and the need to not respond to tragedies by creating more regulations.



Bush, citing his support for the NRA and Florida’s concealed weapons and stand your ground laws, defended gun rights. 

“Whenever you see a tragedy take place, the impulse in the political system most, more, more often at the federal level — but also at the state level — is to do something, right,” he said. “And what we end up doing lots of times is we create rules on the 99.999 percent of human activity that had nothing to do with the tragedy that forced the conversation, by doing something. And we’re taking people’s rights away each time we do that. And we’re not necessarily focusing on the real challenge.”

Lizza followed up with Bush in a gaggle after the South Carolina event to make sure he’d understood the candidate correctly, asking if it was a mistake to say what he had.



“No, it wasn’t a mistake. I said exactly what I said. Explain to me what I said wrong,” Bush said.

“You said, ‘Stuff happens,’” Lizza responded.

“Things happen all the time. Things, is that better?” Bush replied.

Asked about Bush’s comment during a question and answer session with reporters at the White House, President Obama said, “I don’t even think I have to react to that one.”

Wasting no time, American Bridge created a shareable Twitter card highlighting Bush’s comments, and Democrats began predicting that the quote would be used in general election ads against Bush, should he win the GOP nomination.

The Bush campaign decried the focus on his remark as an attempt to prosecute a political agenda.

“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 in a cheap attempt to advance their political agenda in the wake of a tragedy. Taking shameless advantage of a horrific tragedy is wrong and only serves to prey on people’s emotions,” said Allie Brandenburger, a spokesperson for Bush, in a statement to reporters.
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