Jeb Bush: 'The Federal Government Shouldn’t Be Involved in Gun Laws\

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the federal government should stay out of gun regulations, calling for a greater focus on mental illness following last week's on-air shooting of two journalists in Virginia.

“Here’s what I know to be true: Gun violence in the country has dropped significantly, but these sad cases of very public cases, like last week in Roanoke, Virginia, where a reporter and cameraperson was shot down by a person who was deranged, and I think that’s where we need to focus our issues, is the mental illness,” the Republican presidential candidate said at a town hall event at La Progressiva Presbyterian School in Miami.

“He bought a gun, apparently, legally. He had no criminal background record,” Bush said, referring to the Virginia killer. “I don’t know how you would solve that problem unless we began to identify people that had mental health issues, which this person clearly did.”

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Bush was campaigning in his home state, this time fielding questions from future voters on various issues.

One student asked, “Do you think there should be stricter gun laws and would it be beneficial for teachers to carry guns during school hours?”

Bush responded first with a joke. “Wow. That’s a controversial subject. What do you guys do here? No packing?”

He continued, saying that different standards apply for the gun culture in a rural area and in a large city.

“The federal government shouldn’t be involved in gun laws. The country is very different,” Bush continued. “If you go to a rural area where guns are part of the culture, to impose laws from Washington that are going to work for New York City or work in a rural area, makes no sense.”

“Historically when this happens, the 99.9 percent of the cases of people using guns safely for their private pursuits, using them legally, their rights get restricted, and it doesn’t solve the problems of these isolated sad tragic cases,” Bush later added.