December 6, 2015

Marco Rubio wasn't the only Republican making the rounds this Sunday kissing the ring of the NRA. His fellow GOP presidential contender Dr. Ben Carson made an appearance on Fox News Sunday and told host Chris Wallace that there's no way we should allow Syrian refugees to come into the United States because of the shooting in San Bernardino, but don't dare keep anyone on that terrorist no-fly list from getting their hands on a gun.

Here's how Stabby Ben responded when asked how he'd keep us safe from lone wolves like the one in California last week:

WALLACE: Well, let me ask you, though, specifically about this, this case, I understand that's a broad strategy against ISIS. You're talking here about an American citizen, his wife came in on a visa, she had been screened, some will say effectively or not, they bought all these guns legally. So how do you stop this couple from being able to go into that Christmas party and slaughter everybody?

CARSON: Well, first of all, you need to recognize that there is no magic bullet. It's going to be a conglomerate of things that we're going to have to do. First of all, we have to teach everyone the importance of vigilance. And not being afraid to report something. Even if you get nine false alarms, if one of them turns out to be positive, it's worth it. And we have to stop demonizing people who are trying to be good citizens. I think the other thing that we are going to have to do is do a much better job of monitoring the Internet. And the things that cause people to be radicalized. There's absolutely no reason that we shouldn't be putting out counter messages and no reason that we shouldn't be attacking their servers and trying to disrupt their messaging when we see that it is radicalizing people.

Some people say that's dirty pool. But we're playing against dirty people, so dirty pool is okay in that situation. But we have to be just as tough in our resolve as they are.

Someone should tell Carson that using a term like "magic bullet" might not be the best idea while discussing a mass shooting, but I digress. Here's his response when asked just a little bit later about gun control and the people on the no-fly list:

WALLACE: Finally, with the two terrorists in San Bernardino having assembled an amazing arsenal with semiautomatic rifles, semiautomatic pistols, thousands of rounds of ammunition and about a dozen pipe bombs, there's a renewed debate, at least in the case of the guns about gun control, is there anything Dr. Carson that you would do to restrict people's access to semiautomatic weapons or to these high-capacity magazines?

CARSON: Well, you know, California has some of the strictest gun control laws. And the semiautomatic weapons that were used were banned. The magazines were banned. It was a gun-free zone. And yet it still happened. You know, we need to start looking and thinking about things that preserve the right of Americans, their Second Amendment rights, but then have a positive effect in terms of getting hands out, guns out of the hands of terrorists. And people who are mentally unstable. That's what we need to be looking at. And whenever we have these discussions, we need to put the two things up side by side, Second Amendment rights, ability to screen and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of unstable people. Put those up together and then work toward a solution that accomplishes both of those goals.

I guess he doesn't realize we don't have walls erected keeping people, and their guns from traveling from state to state in the U.S. And someone let me know when Republicans do more than giving lip service to keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people as well. I won't hold my breath while I wait.

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