Ben Carson's commonsense defense of the second amendment.

Against a torrent of media attacks unleashed upon him for being "insensitive to the victims of the Oregon school shooting," Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson has stood his ground in favor of individual action to overwhelm single shooters and the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms.

The media attack is predicated on an inaccuracy. It is, therefore, a political move. Carson never uttered a single criticism against the victims of the Oregon school shooting. He never said those victims were wrong or culpable in any way for the shooter's assault upon them. Rather, he advised what he thought all Americans should do in future to diminish the loss of life associated with mass shootings. His advice was for all of those present to attack the shooter and, by overwhelming force of numbers, overwhelm the shooter.

That advice makes imminent good sense. Recognize that had not American heroes on board a Paris-bound train done that very thing, there assuredly would have been a mass murder instead of an aborted murder attempt. Likewise, had Americans not overwhelmed the shoe bomber and other would-be terrorists by intervening directly, loss of many lives well may have occurred.

Carson is right that Americans must act to attack, rather than flee from, those who engage in these cowardly acts. The loss of life will be diminished. He also is right to offer his own personal example by saying that he would be willing to lose his own life to achieve an end to an act of terror. The criticism of him for being "insensitive to the victims" is a non sequitur.

Far from being "insensitive to victims," it precisely is because he cares so much about averting loss of life that he has offered his solution.

Moreover, against a wave of new calls for legislation to limit access to guns, Carson again perceives the issue not in the hysterical terms that lead many to misplaced arguments about denying...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT