Huckabee: President protected by guns; all Americans should have the option

The president, vice president and assorted elected officials and bureaucrats are protected by guns. So why can’t average Americans warrant the same treatment? So asks syndicated talk radio host Mike Huckabee as the nation’s gun owners, retailers and interest groups await the outcome of White House talks on new gun control restrictions in a post-Newtown world.

“We find it necessary to protect people like the president and the vice president and governors and other members of Congress and members of the Cabinet, with heavily armed people. But yet they think that somehow that the rest of us should be protected by something else. Just what is it that we should be protected by?” Mr. Huckabee asked Wednesday.

“Some apparently think that maybe, maybe we should be like it was in the movie ’Young Frankenstein’ where when he got out of control, we just started playing some very soothing music. So maybe instead of carrying a gun, we should just carry a violin. And when anyone became aggressive to us, whether it is if they broke into our home or confronted us on the street with a firearm, we would simply pull out the violin from our violin case and we would begin to play soft and soothing music,” the former Arkansas governor suggested.

“Maybe we could carry around with us a philosopher or a poet. Someone who could soothe the frazzled nerves of those who are disturbed to the point that they wouldn’t take a life. And we can talk some sense into them. We’ll reason with them. We’ll explain to them how violence doesn’t cure anything and that’s not the way we should go,” Mr. Huckabee continued.

In the same vein, he suggests that perhaps a preacher could talk about “moral problems” with shooters. A motivational speaker might help them understand their, uh, motivation. Then there’s always psychiatric medications.

“Calm him down with medicine. That ought to fix it,” Mr. Huckabee declared.

“And you say, ’Well that’s nonsense.’ That’s my point. Common sense says that when someone has confronted you with a weapon, the only sure way you can do to protect yourself — unless you’re incredibly fast and can outrun a bullet — is to be able to defend yourself with something even to or greater than the threat that you face. And I hope that somewhere in all this conversation, that when we talk common sense we might actually have some of it,” he concludes.