Updated

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Wednesday defended remarks being called insensitive to the victims of the Umpqua Community College massacre, after saying he would have attacked the gunman because "that way we don't all wind up dead."

Appearing on Fox News' "America's Newsroom," Carson called out "silly reporters" for "not being able to understand such a simple concept" because they don't accept him.

"They don't try to listen to what you're saying, they're just trying to find a defect so that they can cause more division," he told co-host Martha MacCallum. "I actually believe the American people are smarter than that and they're not going to allow themselves to be manipulated as much as they have in the past."

When asked by MacCallum if he needs to "get better" at saying what he means as a 2016 candidate after recently taking heat for his belief that a Muslim shouldn't be president, Carson stood firm.

"I'm not going to change and become a vanilla envelope that [the media] can accept," he said. "They're never going to accept me because I don't believe in political correctness. So, I can twist myself into pretzels to fit into their silly little box or I can be who I am. We need people who are willing to stand up and talk what's logical right now."