Ben Carson ‘Much More Comfortable’ If Kindergarten Teachers Had Guns

— -- In the wake of last week’s shooting in Oregon, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson suggested that more people should be armed in the United States and said he would be okay with teachers being armed.

“If I had a little kid in kindergarten somewhere would feel much more comfortable if I knew on that campus there was a police officer or somebody who was trained with a weapon. I would feel more comfortable,” Carson said in a new interview with USA Today’s Capital Download. “If the teacher was trained in the use of that weapon and had access to it, I would be much more comfortable if they had one than if they didn’t.”

Carson said he would like teachers to be trained in diversionary tactics, along with other school personnel.

“You obviously are not going to have a weapon sitting on the teacher’s desk, but be secured in a place where kids cannot get to it,” Carson said on ABC’s “The View” today.

The comments come just days after a gunman opened fire in an Umpqua Community College classroom in Oregon last week, leaving 10 people dead.

Carson also knocked down the notion that gun free zones would mitigate gun violence in the country noting that gun free zones would actually draw the gunman to the particular site.

“They aren’t likely to go into a place where they are likely to get shot,” Carson told USA Today.

The retired neurosurgeon has stood by his position that gun control isn’t the issue, but rather comes down the mental health. Carson has said to stop gun violence that data collection is needed to prevent mass shootings from happening. “You’re not going to handle it with more gun control,” Carson said at campaign events last week. “Gun control only works for normal law abiding citizens, it doesn’t work for crazies.”

When asked how he would deal with a gunman in a situation, Carson told Fox News: “I would not just stand there and let him shoot me.”

“I would say ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him!’” he added. “He may shoot me but he can’t get us all.”

Carson emphasized that this way everyone would not die. "I said what I would do...I would ask everyone to attack the gunman," Carson told ABC News. "That way we wouldn't all end up dead."