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Carson: Oregon victims ‘did not rush the shooter’

by Jesse Byrnes - 10/07/15 12:18 PM ET

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson is defending his controversial comments on the mass shooting in Oregon, reiterating that people should try to rush the shooter if they find themselves caught in an attack.

“I want to plant in people’s minds what to do in a situation like this, because unfortunately this is probably not going to be the last time this happens,” Carson said during an interview on “CBS This Morning.”

{mosads}The former neurosurgeon came under fire for saying during an interview Tuesday on Fox News that, if he were faced with a gunman, he “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.’ “

During the CBS interview, Carson was asked if he thought the victims in the shooting at Umpqua Community College — an attack that left nine people dead and several others injured — just stood by.

“From the indications that I got, they did not rush the shooter,” Carson said. “The shooter can only shoot one person at a time. He cannot shoot a whole group of people. So the idea is, overwhelm him so that not everybody gets killed.”

Carson was asked if he knew of Chris Mintz, the Army veteran who was hailed for trying to stop the Oregon shooter. The candidate said he did not know of the man, described to him during the interview as having blocked a door during the attack.

“That verifies what I’m saying,” Carson said. “That’s exactly what should be done.”

During an appearance on Fox News’s “The Kelly File” on Tuesday, the White House hopeful maintained that he was “not judging” the victims of the Oregon attack “at all” with his comments.

“If everybody attacks that gunman, he’s not going to be able to kill everybody. But if you sit there and let him shoot you one by one, you’re all going to be dead,” Carson said on Fox.

“Maybe these are things that people don’t think about. It’s certainly something that I would be thinking about.”

GOP rival Donald Trump defended Carson on Wednesday, tweeting, “Ben Carson was speaking in general terms as to what he would do if confronted with a gunman, and was not criticizing the victims. Not fair!”

The retired doctor has been critical of President Obama’s trip to Roseburg, Ore., on Friday to visit the shooting victims, accusing him of politicizing the shooting.

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