Ben Carson suggests more people should be armed

Susan Page | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Dr. Ben Carson on his plans for the next debate On USA TODAY's Capital Download, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson sits down with Susan Page.

NEW YORK — Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who trails only Donald Trump at the top of the Republican presidential field, says the lesson of the nation's latest mass shooting isn't to enact more limits on guns but to consider whether gun-free zones actually may be drawing shooters.

In a wide-ranging interview with Capital Download, Carson endorsed expanding efforts to identify and treat the mentally ill before they commit acts of violence. He also suggested it might make sense to arm kindergarten teachers, and he rejected as wrong-headed proposals to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons.

"Would that have prevented this? No," Carson told USA TODAY's weekly newsmaker series. "Would it have prevented the one before? No. I'm for doing things that work, not for things that stroke the emotions."

Carson outlines how he says his political philosophy on gun control and other issues is grounded in the Constitution in a new book, A More Perfect Union, being published Tuesday by Sentinel. One of the trio of outsiders who have shaken the GOP race this year, the renowned pediatric neurosurgeon combines a soft-spoken manner with strongly held and hard-edged conservative views, particularly on social issues.

"If I had a little kid in kindergarten somewhere I would feel much more comfortable if I knew on that campus there was a police officer or somebody who was trained with a weapon," he says. Including the teacher? "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."

He says the idea of declaring gun-free zones may be counterproductive. The gunmen "tend to pick places that are gun-free zones," he says. "They aren't likely to go into a place where they are likely to get shot."

He keeps a gun himself at a home he owns in a secluded area, "way out in the country, away from the police, away from anybody," he says. "If someone is, you know, threatening your life or the life of your family and you don't have ready access to the police, I would prefer to have a mechanism for protecting myself."

But he's never had to use it.

The nation's continuing debate over gun control has been spotlighted by the shooting rampage last week at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., that left nine victims dead before the shooter allegedly killed himself. Umpqua bans guns and other weapons, but state law allows people with concealed permits to carry guns on the campus.

While Carson once supported the idea of banning assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition, he says he changed his mind after he read more about the history of tyranny, a subject explored in his new 240-page book.

"Reading people like Daniel Webster, who talked about tyranny in Europe and said it would never occur in America because the American people were armed," he says. "When you look at tyranny and how it occurs, the pattern is so consistent: Get rid of the guns for the people first so you can go in and dominate them."

Asked whether many Americans worried less about the threat from the government and more about the threat of fellow citizens armed with assault rifles, Carson replied: "You need to be able to protect yourself from both."

Carson, now 64, admits to being surprised with his political rise since his address to the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 drew the attention of evangelical Christians and others who urged him to get into politics. In the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Trump runs first in the Republican field at 23%, followed by Carson at 17% and former CEO Carly Fiorina at 11%. Among the more traditional contenders — that is, those who have previously held elective office —only Florida Sen. Marco Rubio breaks into double digits, at 10%.

"It says that the people are actually starting to wake up and recognize that politics-as-usual is not taking us where we want to be," Carson says of the strength of the outsider candidates. "In fact, it's leading us in exactly the opposite direction."

He rejects any parallel to the observation that a president should have experience in politics, just as most people wouldn't choose a brain surgeon who had never been in an operating room before. "Neurosurgery is considerably more complicated than politics," he scoffs. "You don't need to know nearly as much to be able to maneuver in the political world as you do in the operating room inside of somebody's brain. It's not even close."