Florida: Shooting In Oregon Starts Armed Students Debate, Jeb Bush Says No To Gun Control Laws
When it comes to gun control laws in Florida, shooting sprees like what happened in a college campus in Oregon has Floridians discussing what to do in their own colleges. As a former Florida governor, 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush believes caution is necessary, stating that “stuff happens, there’s always a crisis.”
In a related report by the Inquisitr, a recent Florida shooting left three dead and one person critically injured in the town of Inglis. The Florida shooting took place at a home near the local town hall.
The recent Oregon shooting at a community college left nine people dead in the town of Roseburg. Already, the discussion has turned to more gun control laws, but while Jeb Bush calls the mass shooting “heartbreaking” he also says that “more government” wasn’t “necessarily the answer.”
“I had this challenge as governor,” Bush said, speaking about how the state government tended to respond after a Florida shooting. “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.”
President Barack Obama was asked about Jeb Bush’s comments made at the Conservative Leadership Project, and the president indicated that the increase in mass shootings points to a problem.
“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,” Obama said, according to NPR. “And they can decide whether they consider that ‘stuff happening.’ ”
In response, Bush spokeswoman Allie Bradenburger said it was “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.”
More importantly, go here to support OR victims through the Greater Douglas United Way and Umpqua Bank Relief Fund: http://t.co/SmrxPUlNrb
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 2, 2015
Regardless of the war of words between Bush and Democrats, State Representative Greg Steube argues that Second Amendments rights are crucial in stopping a potential Florida shooting on college campuses.
“America’s based on the freedom to be able to defend yourself, to defend others, and the inherent right to self defense; and for some reason, we have stripped that right as you enter a college campus,” said Steube, who believes that it is a college student’s right to wield a gun on a college campus.
Curt Lavarello of the School Safety Advocacy Council disagrees, arguing that stopping a Florida shooting spree would only be made more difficult if police officers also had to deal with armed students.
“We know one thing,” Lavarello said, according to WWSB. “We’re not going to reduce school gun violence by bringing more guns. The dynamics of a school shooting are very difficult already. I can’t imagine being a police officer and having to respond to a school where the report is ‘there’s one bad armed person and 20 good armed people’ and then having to make a split second decision.”
In response, Steube argues that police officers deal with that particular problem “everywhere else” where Floridians are allowed to carry a gun, so he asks, “Why can’t they handle it on a college campus?”
College students are also grappling with the debate over Florida gun control laws. According to the Gainesville Sun, UF student Jeremy Youngquist believes that allowing college gun permits may help since the presence of armed students may dissuade a shooter from attacking. He also believes that gun-free zones do not help.
“My only thought is if someone wanted to bring a gun with mal-intent, they wouldn’t care whether there is a law or not,” he said.
What do you think is the best approach to preventing a Florida shooting spree on college campuses?
Sympathy for victims of #OregonShooting & their families is not enough: we must ask for no violence & peace daily pic.twitter.com/3OIg3KIzYZ — Forest Whitaker (@ForestWhitaker) October 3, 2015
[Image via YouTuBe]
