This item has been updated.  President Obama and Democrats quickly condemned comments made Friday by Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who said that there isn't always a useful government solution to mass shootings and other crises because "stuff happens."  Speaking at an event in Greenville, S.C., Bush's comment came in the midst of expansive answers about the Second Amendment and how people respond to school shootings.  "We're in a difficult time in our country and I don't think that more government is necessarily the answer to this," he said. "I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It's just, it's very sad to see. But I resist the notion -- and I did, I had this, this challenge as governor, because we have, 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 was speaking at a forum hosted by The Conservative Leadership Project, a group with ties to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who moderated the event. His comments came the day after a shooter at an Oregon community college killed nine before being killed by police. Several others are recovering from injuries.  When a reporter asked Bush whether the remark was a mistake, he replied: "No, it wasn’t a mistake, I said exactly what I said, explain to me what I said wrong."  "You said 'stuff happens,'" the reporter said.  "Things happen all the time," Bush said. "Things -- is that better?"  He later elaborated: "Things happen all the time. A child drowns in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around a pool... The cumulative effect of this is that in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty."  Bush also insisted his comments had "no connection to the Oregon issue at all."  At the White House minutes later, a reporter asked Obama what he thought of Bush's comments.  "I don't even think I have to react to that one," the president 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.'"  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also quickly responded via Twitter:  A message for Jeb Bush: 380 Americans have been killed in 294 mass shootings in 2015 alone. "Stuff" doesn't just "happen." Inaction happens.  — D Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) October 2, 2015  In response, the Bush campaign accused Democrats of twisting the candidate's words.  "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," spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger said. "Taking shameless advantage of a horrific tragedy is wrong and only serves to prey on people's emotions."  Bush has made similar comments in response to mass shootings before. Speaking to high school students in Miami on Sept. 1, a few days after a Virginia reporter was shot dead live on television, a student asked what Bush would do as president to address gun violence.  "Every time a tragedy takes place, the natural inclination is to do something," he told the student. "That’s what people generally want to do. ... Historically, when this happens, the 99.9 percent of cases using guns safe in terms, using them safely in terms of their private pursuits... their rights get stricter.  "We have a duty to make sure that our friends know what we care about them," he said. "We need to connect back with people before they tumble back."  Those comments echo something similar Bush said in 1999 as Florida governor in response to the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. He suggested that Florida families should sign a pledge to spend one hour a week "one-on-one" with each of their children in order to avoid such violence.  Ed O’Keefe is covering the 2016 presidential campaign, with a focus on Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates. He's covered presidential and congressional politics since 2008. Off the trail, he's covered Capitol Hill, federal agencies and the federal workforce, and spent a brief time covering the war in Iraq.
The GOP presidential candidate veers into another verbal cul-de-sac, this time when discussing potential legislative remedies to gun violence.