Continuing his controversial statements on gun control Thursday, Republican presidential nominee Ben Carson suggested in a recent interview that the Holocaust would have been less likely to happen if the Jews were armed.
Carson told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he thinks "the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed."
The assertion came after Blitzer read a passage from Carson's book, "A More Perfect Union," which hit stores Tuesday.
In the passage, Carson writes that "through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance."
Blitzer questioned Carson's statement, pointing out the Nazi's military supremacy. "They had a powerful military machine, as you know, the Nazis," the host said, according to the New York Daily News.
Carson countered this point, saying "I understand that. I'm telling you that there is a reason that these dictatorial people take the guns first."
The comments drew a response from the Anti-Defamation League, who were quick to point out the historical inaccuracies of Carson's 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," said ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, who went on to reference a 2013 press release about Nazi analogies in the ongoing gun control debate.
"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," Greenblatt added.
This newest comment falls in line with other heavily-criticized statements Carson has made. He has compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany and has likened ISIS to the Founding Fathers.
