During the October 11 airing of Face the Nation, host John Dickerson went after Ben Carson for contending that the Jewish people would have suffered less under Nazism had they been armed. And instead of examining the substance of Carson’s observation, Dickerson tried to intimate that Carson was suggesting we are under a Nazi-like regime now.
But Carson would not relent. Rather, he doubled down and reminded Dickerson that our Founding Fathers’ purpose in adding the Second Amendment was to keep the citizenry armed and the government constrained.
Breitbart News previously reported on Carson’s October 8th contention that the Jewish people could have curtailed the Holocaust, had they been armed. Dickerson used this contention as a springboard when quoting from Carson’s book, A More Perfect Union, saying, “Confiscating the guns of American citizens would violate the Constitution as well as rendering the citizenry vulnerable to criminals and tyrants.” He then looked directly at Carson and said, “So I want to ask you, who wants to confiscate all the guns of the American citizens?”
Carson replied:
What I’m talking about is the reason that we have a Second Amendment. This is a book about the Constitution and the Second Amendment is part of it. And it is there for the reasons that I stated in the book. Specifically, in the case of an invasion by a foreign power the people would be able to aid the military. And also, if we have a time when we have the wrong people in office, and they want to dominate the people, the people will be able to defend themselves. As Daniel Webster eloquently said, “The people of America will never suffer under tyranny because they are armed.”
Instead of concurring and moving on to the next point, Dickerson pushed back against Carson, saying, “In the book it suggests, though… and I just want to make sure I read this right, when you talk about ‘confiscating the guns of American citizens,’ do you think that’s a present threat–the notion that guns would be confiscated from American citizens?”
Carson answered by saying he does not believe that gun confiscation is part of the plan in the minds of leaders at this time, but he added that the Constitution is there to block such action should it be considered in the future.
Carson said, “Many of the things that are in the Constitution are to help to prevent horrible things from happening. So they are in place to make sure that the people maintain their liberties and that the government remains constrained. Those are the two purposes.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly awrhawkins@breitbart.com.