What Did Ben Carson Really Say About Guns and Mental Health?
Tragedies like the deadly shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon are usually followed by conversations about mental health and gun control.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson weighed into thick of it with recent comments he made shortly after the mass shooting.
In a recent post on social media, Carson was pictured with a sign that said, “I am a Christian.”
On Tuesday, Carson was asked about the post during an appearance on Fox & Friends as well as what he would do if a gunman questioned his religion. Carson said he would not cooperate with the shooter.
“I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,” he added.
Critics say his interview was insensitive to the victims. But on Wednesday Carson defended his comments on CBS This Morning.
He said he wanted to plant in people’s minds the idea that they should rush a shooter in a situation like the Oregon community college attack.
But perhaps overshadowed by his comments on the shooting are what Carson said about mental health during the Fox and Friends interview.
“We need to be studying these individuals, being able to figure out who is the dangerous person so we can intervene, not only to save the lives of people who are being shot, but to save the shooter,” Carson told host Megyn Kelly.
CBN News spoke with family therapist and author Dr. Linda Mintle about the role mental health plays in shootings like the one in Oregon.
“A strong relationship with parents is one of the number one preventions for risk behavior in kids,” Mintle told CBN’s Heather Sells.
Mintle believes fathers have a unique ability to prevent their son’s aggression from spiraling out of control.
“Dads are the ones who know how to help their sons with agressive impulses and to help them rein that in,” Mintle said.
Mintle stressed that even more important than family structure is the importance of spiritual wholeness to prevent tragedies like the one in Oregon.
“Ultimately, it’s going to take a transformation of the heart, that only Jesus Christ can do in a person,” she said.
