Newtown Shooting: Mike Huckabee Blames Mass Killing on Lack of God In School

In July, I wrote a letter to former Arkansas Governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee regarding his comments on the horrific shooting during a Batman movie at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

Here's what Huckabee said: "We don't have a crime problem, a gun problem or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem. And since we've ordered god out of our schools, and communities, the military and public conversations, you know we really shouldn't act so surprised... when all hell breaks loose."

Now, five months later, a perhaps even more horrific tragedy has occurred. Twenty young children and six adults were murdered on Friday during a tragic massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary High School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Here's what Huckabee had to say about the Connecticut shooting on Fox News:

"When we ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools, should we be so surprised that schools have become a place for carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability?"

Here is my second response.

Dear Mr. Mike Huckabee,

Twenty innocent children died today. Twenty sweet smiles vanished, gone. Twenty bright candles of hope have been viciously blown out by a madman who was able to get his hands on multiple assault weapons

In July, twelve people died. Twenty-four eyes, brightened by the entertainment of a movie, closed for eternity. Then, you blamed the carnage on a lack of religion, your religion, in schools.

Now, you're doing the exact same thing.

Last time, I had strong words for you. Today, I respond to you again because, clearly, my words didn't reach you. Or at least they didn't change your mind.

What makes you so sure that your God is the answer to all evils? Over and over you say that people kill people, guns don't. Well, we supply the people that kill people with guns that do, in fact, kill people. Between 2006 and 2010, a staggering 47,856 people were killed by firearms in the U.S. More than any other way of killing. Guns do kill, and they kill a lot.

Pop. Boom. That is how witnesses to the slaughter of dozens described the scene at Sandy Hook Elementary Friday morning.

That is the sound of a gun killing a person, not the sound of God not being present in our schools.

Christmas is two weeks away and the end of Hanukkah is even closer. I asked before, which God should be present in our schools, especially during the holidays? Who has the right to define what God someone else believes in?

The twenty children that died could represent many religions and races. I'm sure many of their tiny bodies braved the frigid, New England air to go to churches, mosques, or synagogues.

How dare you blame their deaths on the absence of religion in our schools and in their lives. Even God himself, any God, could not prevent the easy purchase of multiple assault rifles to murder elementary school students. Forty percent of gun sales in the U.S. don't include backgrounds checks of any kind.

God can't change that; policy can. And God isn't required for learning about life, accountability, and responsibility. Everyday experiences and a good classroom environment set the stage for children to recognize and understand these concepts. Your God, no one's god, should be forced upon a child in a neutral environment.

I hope you take my words and think before you speak on these issues again.