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Ben Carson: It’s ‘More Devastating’ To Lose Second Amendment Gun Rights Than It Is To See A Shooting

By Patrick Frye
Published on: 01:14 PST, Oct 7, 2015

According to 2016 presidential hopeful Ben Carson, it is “more devastating” for Americans to lose their Second Amendment gun rights than it would be to see a “body with bullet holes.” This statement has ignited controversy all over social media, and some news media even claim Carson is not qualified to become a U.S. president based upon his previous comments.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the increase in California gun control laws led to the closing of the last San Francisco gun shop in the entire city. Although the law had to be passed, the gun shop says customers were made to feel like criminals, and the resulting drop in sales forced them to close their doors.

On October 2, 2015, Ben Carson also asked that his Facebook followers update their profile photo to honor the victims and families of the Oregon shooting. Apparently, over two million people honored this request by using a photo that had the #IamAChristian hashtag.

While he was “proud” to be part of such a movement, Ben Carson’s “more devastating” comment came up during a Monday night question and answer session on Facebook. He receives emails via AskBen@BenCarson.com, and then he answers the questions.

One email came from a man named Dan who asked if the Oregon shooting had in any way altered Ben Carson’s gun control position, or if he still supported the Second Amendment as written. Carson says the mass shooting has not affected his position, but the way he answered has angered some.

“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,” Carson wrote on Facebook. “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.”

Ben Carson’s “more devastating” statement has received mixed reactions, but he also shot back at critics who say that his expertise as a neurosurgeon would not prepare him for the presidency.

“You don’t need to know nearly as much to be able to maneuver in the political world as you do in the operating room inside of somebody’s brain. It’s not even close,” he said, according to the Washington Informer.

Last week, Carson also said incidents like the Oregon shooting should lead to a focus on preventing dangerous persons from committing mass shootings rather than taking away gun rights.

“We should be looking at all of the incidents where we have these people who go out and commit horrendous crimes to find out as much as we can about what type of person does this,” Carson said, according to the Washington Times. “The issue is the mentality of these people. And we need to be looking at the mentality of these individuals and seeing if there [are] any early warning clues that we can gather that will help us as a society to be able to identify these people ahead of time.”

Carson’s “more devastating” comment falls in line with his previous stance since he believes that more gun control laws only work for “normal, law-abiding citizens,” not the “crazies.”

What do you think?

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

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