Mike Huckabee: Standing Tall For The Second Amendment
by John Velleco
Director of Federal Affairs

To most Americans, Mike Huckabee is probably best known for shedding 110 pounds. But gun owners may remember the former Arkansas Governor as a man who stood firm for the Constitution, and in particular, the Second Amendment, in the face of unspeakable horror.

On March 24, 1998, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson went to a Jonesboro, Arkansas middle school, pulled a fire alarm, and from a nearby wooded area shot and killed four students and a teacher.

The Jonesboro incident was the third in a string of school shootings, and the calls for gun control were deafening. President Bill Clinton, who had been Arkansas' Governor several years earlier, not surprisingly led the charge to restrict gun ownership.

People across the country also saw, most for the first time, Governor Huckabee. Would he join those exploiting the tragedy for political purposes and compromise on gun rights? Many people expected him to do just that, but even as the media, the president and anti-gun activists from around the country derided him, the Governor stood by his convictions to uphold the rule of law.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon to add to the burgeoning list of gun laws on the books, Governor Huckabee talked about personal responsibility and the obsession with violence widespread among this country's youth.

On NBC’s Today Show, Governor Huckabee refused to allow host Katie Couric to blame law-abiding gun owners for the shooting:

Couric: Governor Huckabee, this is the third deadly shooting to take place in the South in the last five months. And some criminal experts have ventured a guess that southern society, which has a more permissive attitude towards guns and hunting, and perhaps in some circles even glamorizes those things, that that might have been a factor in some -- in this recent spade of shootings. What's your view of that?

Gov. Huckabee: I take strong exception to that kind of view. Southerners may have a very positive view toward the ownership of firearms and even hunting, but we don't have a positive view about murder, and we certainly don't have a positive view toward murder in a schoolyard.

Two years later, Governor Huckabee was involved in another widely publicized Second Amendment debate. In 2000, much of the firearms industry was involved in a series of bogus lawsuits brought by cities, states, and the federal government.

Gun maker Smith & Wesson relented to pressure from the Clinton Administration to settle out of court, and agree on nearly all of the outlandish charges brought in the lawsuits.

In return for this, the company would be rewarded with state and federal government contracts. New York's Attorney General (now Governor) Elliot Spitzer sent a letter to elected officials across the country urging them to support the deal.

Governor Huckabee responded less than enthusiastically.

"Gun manufacturers make the Second Amendment a viable right rather than some theoretical proposition. I will not abuse my authority as governor to pursue their demise or dictate their business practices through coercion," he wrote.

"I will not seek the capitulation of firearm manufacturers through the use of asinine lawsuits or the doling out of taxpayer-funded government contracts. I regret that you feel either of these tactics to be worthwhile endeavors."

Governor Huckabee also signed a law prohibiting frivolous lawsuits against gun makers and eased restrictions on concealed carry permit holders in Arkansas.

Mike Huckabee has been in the heat of battle over gun rights and has proven himself to be a steadfast friend to gun owners and the Second Amendment.