TheChat: Jeb Bush downgrades the need for new gun-control laws after Oregon

Good morning.

▪ “Look, stuff happens.” — Jeb Bush dismissing the need for gun control in the wake of last week’s Oregon shootings.

Bush was rejecting the need to rush in with a new set of gun-control laws. “There is always a crisis and the impulse is to always do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do,” he said. It all amounted to another awkward moment for Bush on the campaign trail.

▪ “Harold's mind and its workings could be a beautiful process or a fearsome experience.” — former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson and former Senate President Pro Tem Jim Mathewson writing about the life of their colleague, state Sen. Harold Caskey, who died last week.

The thing about Caskey of Butler, the two wrote, is that he “never stood up on the Senate floor with less than total preparedness.” Bottom line: Caskey deserves more recognition than most other lawmakers “because he did more to impact laws and the lives of the people of Missouri.”

▪ “We have in Jefferson City a political class of corrupt consultants, and well-paid lobbyists and career politicians who have been there for decades and have produced nothing for us but embarrassment and failure.” — Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens explaining why Missouri ranks near the bottom nationally when it comes economic growth, education and fighting poverty.

Greitens is convinced the problem is state government. His solution is to bring “an army of outsiders” to the state Capitol to run things.

▪ “Negative.” — Moody’s Investor Service in New York evaluating Kansas’ decision to move to block-grant funding for its public schools.

The problem is that districts with growing student populations could be hurt by the move, Moody’s said. The evaluation may not necessarily lead to a credit-rating downgrade, the agency added, although the new approach to school funding adds some challenges.

This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 10:53 PM.