Why Ben Carson’s Violent Past Is Relevant Today

While it may be true that anyone can overcome major challenges in life, learning and growing along the way, Ben Carson’s violent past is part of a much larger problem that Republicans will have to deal with, and soon. As Carson hits the campaign trail with his sights set on the presidency, the former brain surgeon is consistently making statements that can’t help but raise the question: Is Ben Carson crazy?

Although the wayward candidate may have given up resorting to physical violence in order to get his way, Carson’s violent past is indicative of an ongoing pattern of alarming behavior. He isn’t above doling out verbal abuse whenever the mood strikes, for example, decrying science, homosexuality, the concept of universal health care, equality, and even the official historical record, Salon reported.

“Now we know for sure that education is no hedge against mind blowing irrational thinking … It seems that a scientist who denies science and a black man who denies the existence of racism is catnip for [these] voters.”

As for Ben Carson’s violent past, the facts are alarming at best. While we’ve become used to hearing about presidential candidates who dabbled in illegal drugs during their youth, Carson’s crimes are much more serious, involving baseball bats, bricks, hammers, and an attempted stabbing, according to his own recollection, CNN reported after he appeared Sunday on Meet The Press.

“As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers. And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone.”

https://youtu.be/43v2hMtVZ-E

Oddly, the admission was part of an attempted rebuttal to comments made by Donald Trump at a rally in Miami Friday, when his leading opponent for the Republican presidential nomination said that Carson has “super low energy.” It seems Carson wants voters to believe his soft-spoken manner is not an indication of his low energy levels, but instead is his way of dealing with “volatile” tendencies.

“I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile.”

Although Carson claims to have changed and now renounces his violent past, to the outside observer it appears these “volatile” personality traits were simply transposed, finding a permanent home in his disturbing personal philosophies and overall world view, which can only be described as savage when you consider Carson’s comments on gun control after the Oregon college mass shooting in early October. As GQ reported, Ben Carson actually said he “would not just stand there and let him shoot me,” in an act that not only shows his supreme disrespect for the victims, but also demonstrates his outright delusional view of the situation.

It was delusional because one victim actually did charge the shooter. Army veteran Chris Mintz, who miraculously survived the ordeal, took seven bullets in a heroic attempt to stop the gunman, but that didn’t seem to matter to Carson until Norah O’Donnell expressly called him out on this gross oversight on CBS This Morning.

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But it was later, when taking part in a Facebook Q&A, that Carson really took the craziness to another level when he answered a question about whether the tragedy had altered his views on Second Amendment rights. Apparently, not only did the horrific event not change his perverse views, it somehow made him conclude that more guns and less gun control could somehow solve the growing problem, despite the fact that the Small Arms Survey has consistently ranked the U.S. as No. 1 for having the highest gun ownership rate, with at least 90 guns per 100 residents.

“I grew up in the slums of Detroit. I saw plenty of gun violence as a child. Both of my cousins were killed on the streets. As a Doctor, I spent many a night pulling bullets out of bodies. There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking – but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.”

https://www.facebook.com/realbencarson/posts/537817656384705

Predictably, despite public outcries against his increasingly alarming rhetoric, Ben Carson remains unfazed by the truth and continues to stand by his views, stating that there should be no limit to the types of weapons Americans should be able to purchase. Is this – along with his erroneous linking of the Holocaust to gun rights – somehow connected to Carson’s violent past? Maybe. Is it delusional? Definitely.

[Photo by Sean Rayford / Getty Images]