Huckabee: Laws don't change this kind of thing

Former Arkansas governor reacts to tragic shooting

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," December 14, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": You can just imagine all the parents who are going to go through that all over themselves, parents of much younger children, much more impressionable children, children who shouldn’t be seeing anything like this at this time of year, no less.

To former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

I'm going to try to tap the preacher in you, the man of God in you who could help us with this.

Help us with this.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: Well, I'm not sure that there -- there is no human rationale or explanation.

I was governor in 1998 on March 31 when the Jonesboro school shootings happened. And it is one those days I start reliving all over again today. And when I'm hearing that mother talk, I realize that one of the things people will not fully comprehend every television camera in the world will descend upon Newtown, Connecticut, over the weekend and for the next several days.

And then they will all leave and they will go cover something else. All these people will still have the scars, emotionally, and many them physically, for years to come. And, right now, what is very harmful is so much attention, but so little valid information.

I know it was so frustrating to me and other officials because so many people were speculating what happened, who did it, why did they do it, and we don't know those things. And I do believe that one of the most important things to do at this point is to take it very, very calmly, and slowly

But the biggest maybe aftermath of something like this is that people are going to look for, OK, why did it happen? Well, the answer is inexplicable. What do we do to stop it? You can take certain measures. And I think that your previous guest had a lot of great ideas, which is very important.

But, ultimately, you can take every gun away in America and someone will use a bomb? When someone has an intent to do incredible damage, they will find a way to do it. In the case of the Jonesboro shooters, we were talking about an 11- and a 12-year-old kids who took high-powered rifles and gunned down their classmates and teachers after they had got them into a schoolyard by setting off the fire alarm, where they were trapped in a fenced area and could not get back in because the door locked after them.

They were sitting ducks. And the question kept -- how can an 11- and a 12-year-old do this? Well, the answer is no one can understand how that can happen and people will want to pass new laws. But unless you change people's hearts -- there, I transition maybe to the pastor's side. This is a heart issue. It's not something -- laws don't change this kind of thing.

CAVUTO: Invariably, people ask after tragedies like this, how could God let this happen?

HUCKABEE: It is an interesting thing.

We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we systematically remove God from our schools. Should we be so surprised schools would become a place of carnage? Because we have made it a place where we do not want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability, that we will not just have to be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand one day before a holy God in judgment.

If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that. I sometimes -- when people say, why did God let it happen, God wasn't armed. He didn't go to the school. But God will be there in the form of a lot people with hugs and with therapy and a whole lot of ways in which I think he will be involved in the aftermath.

Maybe we ought to let him in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it is all said and done at the back end.

CAVUTO: Governor, thank you very, very much.

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