Ahead of a weekend trip to Iowa, potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson sought to assure supporters Wednesday evening that he's a strong Second Amendment supporter.

As he inches closer to the prospect of a presidential campaign, Carson used a conference call to try to address questions about his loyalty to gun rights.Skepticsoften point to a statement the neurosurgeon-turned-conservative-activist made in 2013 to conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck, whoasked whether people have the right to own semi-automatic weapons.

It depends on where you live, Carson told Beck. If you live in the midst of a lot of people, and Im afraid that that semi-automatic weapon is going to fall into the hands of a crazy person, I would rather you not have it.

Sometimes people just hear one little thing and they don't hear anything else.

Ben Carson

That statement has led some to unfairly label him as tepid on the Second Amendment, Carson said on the call.

There seemed to be group of peopleI don't know exactly who they arewho seize upon one part of something that I said, Carson said on the call, which Bloomberg Politics was allowed to dial into. Sometimes people just hear one little thing and they don't hear anything else.

Carson said that he could have been more precise in his answer to Beck.

Perhaps I didnt convey it appropriately, he said. I wanted to convey that, you know, I've lived in urban areas. I've worked in urban areas. I've seen a lot of carnage, and I'd prefer a situation where the kinds of weapons that create that kind of carnage don't fall to the hands of criminal elements or insane people. But that is secondary to the desire to always defend the Second Amendment.

Carson said that under no circumstances would he allow a bureaucrat to remove any law-abiding citizen's rights for any kind of weapon that they want to protect themselves.

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