Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson saying victims of mass shootings should "overwhelm" an attacker "so everybody doesn't get killed" is sound advice, Arizona County Sheriff Paul Babeu told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"We actually teach on this," Babeu, the highest law-enforcement officer in Pinal County, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "Absolutely. If somebody's not only threatening your life, is actively killing people, fight, put up resistance, try to harm or kill that person. Absolutely."
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Babeu,
who announced his second bid for Congress on Monday after dropping out of an earlier race for the House of Representatives, said that such shootings could be averted if more places were not designated gun-free zones.
"We've created these false safe-school zones, right, which are gun free, with the federal laws, and what we've created is alluring targets to a lot of people with mental-health issues — but also to these crazies who want to just come in and take advantage of this.
"The only people who are lawfully allowed to carry there are guys like me," the sheriff said.
"We have to start looking at this threat very differently.
"This is our Second Amendment freedom, our liberty."
The issue is critical to Babeu's platform in the House race. He is seeking the seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who is stepping down to challenge longtime Republican Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential candidate.
"We're going to take our fight from Pinal County, with border security being a top issue and [a call] to enforce all of the laws," Babeu told Malzberg.
The sheriff has been active in fighting illegal immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico and stopping drug trafficking through the county.
"We've arrested 19 drug cartel scouts just this past year. These are cartel scouts on mountain tops in my county with binoculars — and they live there a month at a time providing safe passage to the drug cartels.
"This is in America, so how can this be going on?" Babeu asked. "Why shouldn't the president be concerned about us and our safety? We're going to take this fight to Washington."
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