Carson's Comments on Oregon Victims Draw Rebukes

Washington: Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who is a leading Republican presidential contender, has intensified his defense of gun rights in response to last week's Oregon campus massacre, arguing that the Second Amendment is more sacred than spilled blood.

He also suggested that the victims should have had the courage to attack their assailant, and accused President Barack Obama of politicizing the tragedy by embracing the families of the dead.

In a Facebook question-and-answer session Monday night, Carson tried to show empathy with victims by recalling that two of his cousins were killed in the streets and that, as a doctor, he had removed many bullets from the bodies of gunshot victims. But he said the right to bear arms was paramount.

"I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away," Carson wrote.

And on Tuesday, Carson's suggestion that he would have fought back in the face of an attack like the one in Roseburg, Oregon, went viral, drawing rebukes from his critics and reviving questions about his candidacy.

"I would not just stand there and let him shoot me," Carson, who has been surging in recent polls, said on Fox News. "I would say: 'Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can't get us all.'"

Offering a prescription that echoed the National Rifle Association's view that arming "good guys" is the answer, Carson also suggested to USA Today that kindergarten instructors should have weapons training.

"If the teacher was trained in the use of that weapon and had access to it, I would be much more comfortable if they had one than if they didn't," Carson said.

Like many Republican presidential candidates who have sought to express sympathy for victims while maintaining support for gun rights, Carson has struggled to address the issue with sensitivity. Belief in limited government is central to the Republican Party, and those running for office have found it challenging to offer solutions to an epidemic of violence that do not involve more federal oversight.

Last week, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida was criticized for seeming to minimize the mass shooting by saying that "stuff happens" during a discussion about gun violence, in which he argued that government intervention was not always the right response to crises. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has insisted that stricter gun laws would prove fruitless because criminals would flout them. Like Carson, they both say that mental health is the main culprit.

"Ben Carson's offensive response is the same as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and the rest of the Republican field whose answer on what the government should do to protect children from gun violence is simple - do nothing," said Jessica Mackler, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal political action committee.

For Democrats, the debate has presented an opportunity to put forth detailed policy proposals to fix the problem. At an event in Iowa on Tuesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed the issue and jabbed at Bush, saying: "This isn't stuff that happens. We let it happen, and we have to act."

But for Carson, the remarks raised fresh doubts about the long-term viability of a candidate whose popularity has been growing and who sits in second place, behind Donald Trump, in most recent polls of Republicans. Carson became a popular political speaker after delivering heated critiques of the Obama administration, which he once compared to Nazi Germany's Third Reich.

Since starting his campaign, Carson had begun to soften his tone in hopes of appealing to a broader swath of voters. In recent weeks, however, he has veered back into more controversial territory. In September, he offended Muslim-Americans by saying that believers in Islam should not be president. Now, Carson has invited questions about his judgment by suggesting that victims of gun violence were overly passive.

The heavily armed Oregon gunman killed nine people before taking his own life. The fact that an Army veteran who did try to stop him was shot multiple times and remains hospitalized underscores the risks of attacking an armed attacker, as numerous critics pointed out Tuesday.

"It's not brain surgery," said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Fewer guns in the wrong hands equal fewer deaths from gun violence. Ben Carson should stick to what he knows."

On Tuesday, in seeking to demonstrate how he would handle a similar crisis, Carson also indicated that he would not try to be a comforter in chief. He suggested that Obama was wrong for planning a trip to Oregon later this week to console the families of victims, since some members of the community did not welcome him.

"When do we get to the point where we have people who actually want to solve our problems, rather than just politicize everything?" Carson said.

He added that he would probably skip such a trip if he were president.

"I mean, I would probably have so many things on my agenda that I would go to the next one," he said.

Carson has tried to show solidarity with the victims in his own way, recently posting a photograph of himself with a sign that said "I am Christian" on Facebook to demonstrate how people should not renounce their religion in the face of violence.

"When you give away your identity, you give away your soul," Carson said Tuesday.

But ultimately, Carson argued, the Second Amendment remains the most effective means of keeping people safe and free. Paraphrasing 19th-century statesman Daniel Webster, he said, "America would never suffer tyranny because the people are armed."