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Ben Carson ‘Sees Positives And Negatives’ In Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law

CREDIT: ALICE OLLSTEIN
CREDIT: ALICE OLLSTEIN

NAPLES, FLORIDA — Current GOP frontrunner Dr. Ben Carson has described himself as “extremely pro-Second Amendment,” posting on Facebook just last month that he believes gun control policies are more “devastating” than a “body with bullet holes.”

But when asked by ThinkProgress during a book signing at a Costco in Naples for his thoughts on the controversial “Stand Your Ground” policy that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law, Carson seemed torn.

“I see positives and negatives,” he said. “We should be talking about how we preserve our Second Amendment rights but at the same time prevent unnecessary violence. That’s the right framework.”

When ThinkProgress pressed him to clarify, Carson said, after pausing to think, “Obviously I want people to stand their ground, but I don’t want to create vigilantism either. I probably come down somewhere in the middle on how to do it.”

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Florida’s law, which Jeb Bush signed in 2005, allows state residents to use lethal force when they feel threatened, without first attempting to flee or deescalate the situation. Since then, it has inspired copycat laws in nearly half the states in the nation, and has led to an increase in the number of homicides deemed justifiable in those states. In Florida, “justifiable homicides” tripled in the five years after the law’s enactment.

The law remains popular with a narrow majority of Floridians. But critics are continuing to raise their voices. The mother of unarmed African American teen Jordan Davis, who was shot and killed in Florida in 2012 by an older white man who was upset about Davis’ loud music, told ThinkProgress she believes the law “empowered” her son’s killer Michael Dunn. The law also played a part in acquitting George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida in 2013.

Carson did not say whether he was referring either to Zimmerman or Dunn when he told ThinkProgress he didn’t want gun laws that “create vigilantism.”

Since launching his bid for president, which kicked into high gear this week as he edged Donald Trump out of the number one spot in national polls, Carson’s stance on gun control has shifted. He told Glenn Beck in 2013 that he believes there should be some restrictions on semi-automatic weapons in urban environments, so that they do not fall into the hands of a “crazy person.” But in his new book A More Perfect Union, which he has paused his campaign to sell across Florida and other states, he writes that he changed his mind when he “fully recognized the intent of the Second Amendment, which is to protect the freedom of the people from an overly aggressive government.”

“The people have a right to any type of weapon that they can legally obtain in order to protect themselves,” he says. “They would be at a great disadvantage if they were attacked by an overly aggressive government and all they had to defend themselves with were minor firearms.” Carson does not explain further how armed civilians could match up against the U.S. military’s full might in the event that a “tyrant” takes power.