Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has come under fire for suggesting that more Jews might have survived the Holocaust had they been armed to defend themselves against the Nazi onslaught.
Carson was quizzed on CNN over comments he made in his new book, in which he comes out in favor of the right to bear arms and rejects attempts to curtail it.
When asked on CNN to clarify, he said: “I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed." He added: "I’m telling you that there is a reason that these dictatorial people take the guns first.”
The medical doctor is currently polling in second place in the race to become the Republican presidential candidate, behind frontrunner Donald Trump.
In response, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement: "Ben Carson has a right to his views on gun control, but the notion that Hitler’s gun-control policy contributed to the Holocaust is historically inaccurate.The small number of personal firearms available to Germany’s Jews in 1938 could in no way have stopped the totalitarian power of the Nazi German state, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL's national director.
