AP Photo Carson defends his criticism of Oregon shooting victims

Ben Carson clarified Wednesday what he meant when he said the previous day that he would “not just stand there” if he were part of a group attacked by a gunman.

"Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me," he had said Tuesday during an appearance on "Fox and Friends." "I would say, ‘Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.'"


A day later, appearing on "CBS This Morning," co-host Norah O'Donnell asked Carson what he meant when he said, "I would not just stand there."

"I want to plant in people's minds what to do in a situation like this, because unfortunately this is probably not going to be the last time this happens," the retired neurosurgeon said.

Asked whether he believed the victims in Oregon "just stood there," Carson replied that "from the indications that I got, they did not rush the shooter."

"The shooter can only shoot one person at a time. He cannot shoot a whole group of people, and so the ideal is, overwhelm him so that not everybody gets killed," he added.

Asked by O'Donnell if he knew of Chris Mintz, the Army veteran who was shot seven times in his life-saving attempts at Umpqua Community College last Thursday, Carson said no.

"That verifies what I'm saying," he went on to say. "That's exactly what should be done. And if everybody does that, the likelihood of him being able to kill as many people diminishes quite significantly."

Responding to criticism that he may be coming off as insensitive toward the victims, Carson decried "a culture now where people decide that everything you say, we need to set up battle lines and we need to get on this side of it or that side of it, rather than collectively trying to figure out how we can solve the problem."

"It's sort of an immature attitude, but it seems to be something that's rampant in America today," he added.

GOP presidential rival Donald Trump defended Carson on Twitter shortly before the CBS interview aired.

"Ben Carson was speaking in general terms as to what he would do if confronted with a gunman, and was not criticizing the victims. Not fair!" he wrote.