WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush unleashed a torrent of criticism when he said “stuff happens” when asked about renewed calls for gun control legislation after America’s latest mass shooting.

Speaking at a conservative forum in South Carolina, Bush said the Oregon shooting was “just heartbreaking,” and that he too had faced challenges during his time as governor of Florida.

“Look, stuff happens, there’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something and it’s not always the right thing to do,” Bush said at the Conservative Leadership Project in Greenville, South Carolina, during a discussion about gun control. He was guarding against the urge to press for new laws and regulations after tragedies like Thursday’s shooting in Roseburg, Oregon.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, jumped on Bush’s comments.

“A message for Jeb Bush: 380 Americans have been killed in 294 mass shootings in 2015 alone. ‘Stuff’ doesn’t just ‘happen.’ Inaction happens,” she said on Twitter.

Amid the outcry on social media, President Barack Obama weighed in and was blunt.

“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 told a press conference.