Ben Carson Suggests Holocaust Would Have Been Less Likely if Jews Were Armed

— -- Republican candidate Ben Carson continued his controversial remarks about guns Thursday -- suggesting in a new interview that the Jews may have been able to diminish the likelihood of the Holocaust if they were armed.

Carson made the remarks, which drew swift condemnation -- on CNN. He said that passengers on Flight 93, which crashed on 9/11, helped avoid further tragedy by rushing the gunman.

In Carson's new book “A Perfect Union,” Carson writes that “through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance.”

On CNN, Carson was asked: "But just to clarify, if there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would 6 million Jews have been slaughtered?"

In response, the candidate suggested that Hitler may not have been as effective in carrying out his plot if the victims were armed.

“I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed,” Carson said. “I’m telling you there is a reason these dictatorial people take guns first."

The comments drew a swift response from the Anti-Defamation League.

“Ben Carson has a right to his views on gun control, but the notion that Hitler’s gun-control policy contributed to the Holocaust is historically inaccurate," said Jonathan Greenblatt, National Director of the organization. "The small number of personal firearms available to Germany’s Jews in 1938 could in no way have stopped the totalitarian power of the Nazi German state."