BEN CARSON: I would have attacked the Oregon shooter
The Republican presidential candidate weighed in on the hypothetical during a "Fox & Friends" interview.
"I'm glad you asked that question. Because not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me," Carson said.
He speculated that he would have organized a response.
"I would say, 'Hey guys! Everybody attack him! He may shoot me but he can't get us all!'" Carson exclaimed.
He was responding to a question how he would have reacted to a gunman demanding to know his religion.
Some survivors' families reportedly said that the Oregon college shooter asked his victims if they were Christians before opening fire. Carson also had a viral Facebook post - garnering more than 1.1 million "likes" - using the hashtag "#IamaChristian."
President Barack Obama and the Democratic presidential candidates reacted to the Umpqua Community College massacre by calling for additional gun-control measures. Republicans, including Carson, dismissed the need for additional gun restrictions.
Carson explained how he would cut back on mass shootings during a wide-ranging phone interview with Business Insider on Monday. The retire doctor argued that a database of "dangerous people" would go a long way in tackling the mental-health component of the shootings.
"In the case of both the shooter in Aurora and the one at Virginia Tech, there was evidence that these were dangerous people. And that could be easily in a database. We have the mechanism for doing stuff, but we have to act on it," Carson said, referencing mass shootings in recent years at the Virginia college and a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.
He added: "Common sense will tell you that you're not going to put dangerous weapons in somebody's hands like that. That seems like a big part of our problem. Common sense - we don't seem to have it anymore."
Carson spoke to Business Insider while promoting his new book, "A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties."