Jindal: Now is not the time to talk gun control
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday deflected questions about whether Thursday night’s movie theater shooting should prompt a reevaluation of gun policies.
“We are less than 24 hours out, we’ve got two families that need to bury their loved ones. We’ve got families waiting for their loved ones to leave the hospital and are praying for their recovery,” he said Friday at a press conference in Lafayette, La., where a gunman killed two others and himself.
{mosads}“There will be an absolute appropriate time for us to talk about policies and politics, and I’m sure that folks will want to score political points of this tragedy, as they’ve tried to do on previous tragedies.”
Jindal described the gunman, a 59-year-old man who authorities have called a “drifter,” as methodical during the shooting and said there does not seem to be any explanation to why he chose the specific theater.
Reporters pushed back at Jindal’s answer, asserting that the frequency of mass shootings makes it difficult to wait to address the issue until well after a shooting.
But Jindal reasserted his point and said the most important thing for him to do now is support the families of victims.
“You can ask me these questions in a couple of days. I’m not going anywhere. I’m happy to talk about this, we’re happy to talk about politics, but not here,” he said.
Jindal suspended his presidential campaign earlier Friday in the wake of the shooting.
John Russel Houser killed two others and himself and injured nine when he opened fire in the theater late Thursday during a showing of “Trainwreck.”
The Louisiana shooting came three years and three days after James Holmes opened fire during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo., killing 12 and injuring 70.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic presidential hopeful, called for “comprehensive gun safety laws” in an op-ed Friday in the Boston Globe.
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