Ben Carson said Friday that he does not have a problem with the Centers for Disease Control once again conducting research about gun violence, but that position could cause him problems with the gun lobby and Republicans who see matters differently.
"I say more information is better," said the retired neurosurgeon and GOP presidential candidate, reports
The Washington Post. "Whatever it is. Put the information on the table, and let's make decisions based on real evidence."
But in 1996, the then-new Republican majority in Congress wrote out funding for research on gun violence after the National Rifle Association at that time complained about such studies being biased. Since that time, lawmakers concerned about angering the NRA have continued to block CDC funding to be used for gun studies.
"The CDC is there to look at diseases that need to be dealt with to protect public health,” former Speaker of the House John Boehner said in 2013. “I’m sorry, but a gun is not a disease. Guns don’t kill people — people do. And when people use weapons in a horrible way, we should condemn the actions of the individual and not blame the action on some weapon."
And at the CDC, which was ordered to resume firearm studies after the Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut, there are still funding shortfalls, reports The Post.
Carson, though, believes that such shootings are done by people with mental health issues, and not caused by access to guns, and as such says the problem needs to be studied.
"We need to be studying these individuals, being able to figure out who is the dangerous person so we can intervene, not only to save the lives of people who are being shot, but to save the shooter," he said.
Carson has been coming under some fire for his pro-gun rights stance, including his controversial comments after a mass shooting earlier this month in Roseburg, Ore., when he said people need to band together to fight against shooters.
He's also been panned for saying the Holocaust came about, in part,
because guns had been taken away from Europe's Jewish population.