Ben Carson visited Fox and Friends on Tuesday to discuss the economy and the Oregon shootings that left several people dead and many more injured at Umpqua Community College. Carson appeared to take issue with President Obama’s willingness to politicize the tragedy by asking voters to demand change in gun laws. Obama was willing to accept criticism for his stance and said, “This is something we should politicize.”
Carson does not agree that mass shootings should have an effect on gun laws. His visit to Fox followed a controversial statement made on his Facebook page, which is best summarized by the retired neurosurgeon:
“I grew up in the slums of Detroit. I saw plenty of gun violence as a child. Both of my cousins were killed on the streets. As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking – but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away. Serious people seek serious solutions. The Left would prefer to use these tragedies to advance a political agenda. To me, that is also devastatingly sad. The Left would have you believe that a man that asked Christians to stand up (and then executed them one by one) would obey ‘new gun laws.’ That kind of logic explains many of the problems we find ourselves in today.”
Speaking to Fox and Friends, Carson reiterated his stance that Obama and Hillary Clinton shouldn’t use tragedies to push an agenda. Then things took a turn for the awkward around the 5:00 mark in the above video. Carson stated that he would have been very assertive in dealing with the Oregon shooter:
“I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, ‘Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.'”
Carson has no idea how he would have behaved under gunfire in Oregon without being there himself. His words evoke shades of Mark Wahlberg, who famously said he could have stopped terrorists on 9/11. There’s little one can do to change anyone’s mind on the issue of gun control, but it says a lot that Carson feels more “devastated” at the thought of losing guns than seeing the bullet-riddled bodies that follow.