GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson has spoken out about the recent San Bernardino shooting and branded the incident as a “hate crime.”
This horrific attack occurred at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino when two assailants, who the authorities have identified as Syed Forook and Tashfeen Malik, open fired at a party and killed 14 innocent civilians while injuring another 17.
In a conference in South Carolina Carson referred to the San Bernardino shooting as a “hate crime” and stated:
“At least 14 people killed. When less than a week ago we had the shooting in Colorado. And then look at all the things that are going on around the world. ISIS and groups like this. Just hatred and evil. And we need to be able to combat these things because otherwise we will melt into despair. And that’s not who we are. This is America.”
Although this term is normally used to describe an act of violence towards a marginalized group Carson expanded on his use of the term “hate crime” by saying:
“Well it’s hard to imagine that you would shoot a bunch of people if you didn’t hate them, right? You don’t do that to people you love.”
All of the evidence indicates that the two assailants responsible for the San Bernardino shooting easily and legally obtained firearms therefore the seemingly most obvious way to reduce similar acts of gun violence would be to restrict ownership laws.
The San Bernardino shooting comes less than a week after the attack at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs which Carson labelled as “domestic terrorism.” Despite condemning both of the recent shootings Carson has not outlined a plan to attempt to reduce future gun violence.
Carson remains adamant that civilians should “absolutely have gun rights” so they are able to defend themselves and has even controversially suggested that the German gun control laws in the 1930’s were responsible for the Holocaust because the Jewish people were unable to defend themselves from the Nazis.
Image via DonkeyHotey via Flickr under this Creative Commons License.
