Ben Carson Defends Remark on Oregon Shooting as Advice for Future

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he's trying to plant in people's minds the idea that they should rush a shooter in a situation like the Oregon community college attack.

Carson has come under criticism for saying that if he were there, he would have tried to stop the gunman who killed nine people. Carson said Tuesday he "would not just stand there and let him shoot me." His advice: everybody overwhelm a shooter so fewer are killed.

On Wednesday, Carson told CBS his remarks had been questioned and called insensitive because people are too quick to "set up battle lines" over every comment instead of solving problems.

A gun rights supporter, Carson says one solution is better mental health care and keeping guns from people declared dangerous by psychiatrists.

Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, said in another public comment on the issue Monday that having operated on victims of gun violence in the past did not change his position about gun control.

During the Facebook Q&A he said, "I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away." 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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