Jeb Bush answered questions last week regarding gun control and the recent mass shooting; his answers left something to be desired. Quotes being used to misrepresent candidates is pretty common in politics, but Jeb's comment of "stuff happens" (regarding the recent Oregon shooting) is a fairly large political misstep. Jeb has a very solid record on reducing gun violence in Florida, but is standing firm on not making Florida's gun-purchasing restrictions a nationwide policy.
Read full article here
Jeb's remark regarding the Umpqua CC shooting was fairly publicized this week in the national media. Bush referred to the incident with the phrase "stuff happens". This statement will and has offended a lot of people, and offending people is not a great way to attract new voters. It'll be interesting to see how Bush polls these next few weeks following the aftermath of his comment.
ReplyDeleteFor sure. It's one of those "Howardactyl" Dean moments, whether or not he intended it to be so cavalier is going to be irrelevant to the masses on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Jeb Bush will get far by neglecting gun control, and being a bush is most likely gonna make that worse.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I see where he's coming from. Stuff does happen, all the time and sometimes there's just nothing we can do about it. Just because we make more gun laws will that really make these kind of situations go away? For example, take Chicago or even New York. I believe that those tow places have some of the strictest gun laws. But they also have the most gun related violence.
ReplyDeleteYou can definitely put more tests and age restrictions on guns, but if someone really wants to cause a shooting, they will do it.
Wow, it is quite interesting to see how quickly things can be misinterpreted with the media. I am sure that Bush did not intend to sound so insensitive about the shooting. Words need to be chosen with extreme caution during these types of events. Although, I agree with Yuliya. Sad and terrible things do happen, we can't control them. Only the people that commit such acts can. Gun laws may be able to help the problem, but, unfortunately, laws are broken all the time. I do not think that these laws would keep these tragedies from happening.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're a politician, it goes without saying that you need to be very deliberate with your speech and think about what you say before you say it, more so when you're running for leader of the free world. I understand what he probably meant, but it comes across as flippant and disrespectful. Not only that, but it makes him sound like he won't take any action to solve the problem, which will not fly with voters. If you go into politics with a mindset of flippancy and resignation, thinking "laws are broken all the time," you will not get far. You are supposed to be a problem solver. Moreover, the media will pick up on any careless comment you make and publicize it, because that's frankly their job.
ReplyDeleteStuff does happen, but I think the way Jeb Bush said it made it seem like he didn't really care. Politicians have to be careful with their words, just like Abigail pointed out. Honestly, I don't think that gun control would solve the problem of mass shootings. If a guy really wanted to massacre a bunch of people, a gun law wouldn't stop him. In fact, I read a statistic that many gun-shooting were ended early because a victim had a gun to protect himself and others. But regarding Jeb Bush, I think he should be more particular about his word choice so that it wouldn't be so easy for the media to twist it out of context.
ReplyDeletesaying stuff happens could really offend a person in regards to a shooting. Imagine if your family got shot dead and the president said "oh well stuff happens!" that would not make you feel safe.!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read that he said "oh well stuff happens," the quote "there's nothing we can do about it," popped into my head immediately. I'm most likely not the only one who took it this way, and for each person that did, that's one less vote for Jeb Bush.
ReplyDeletePoliticians need to be careful with what they say and how they say it, that is all that matters.
ReplyDelete