Leave it to Mike Huckabee to find a way to use the issue of abortion in order to deflect on the need to pass gun control legislation.

That's exactly what the viewers were treated to in Des Moines, Iowa, on local channel KCCI, where Huckabee tried to make the case that passing gun laws won't do any good, because criminals are going to just do what they want anyway, and to blame mass shootings on disrespect in general for human life, and abortion.

It seems the only laws old HuckaJesus believes we need are the ones regulating women and their reproductive health. The rest are just exercises in futility.

STACEY HORST: Mass shootings have become all too common in this country. the question is, what, if anything, can be done? We ask Mike Huckabee.

We have seen a lot of mass shootings lately in this country, hardly enjoying domestic tranquility. What do we need to do to prevent that?

HUCKABEE: Well I think if you mean, is there a law to be passed, and I've asked several people, tell me what law that you could pass that will eradicate the kind of evil and sin that lives in people's hearts since the time of Cain and Abel, I don't know what that law is.

I mean, there's always the reaction of “We've got to do something!” Well fine. Let's people's hearts, because what we have is we have a problem where people, in some cases are mentally ill, and those folks need treatment and in some cases, you have people are just mean and violent and vicious and they have devalued other people.

I think if you look at big picture, again, take this in the macro rather than the micro, where you look at a school shooting. Back off and ask ourselves, what are we presented as a society? The coarseness, the level of disrespect, the level of personal elevation and devaluation of other people.

We see it in so many ways, everything from the way people speak to each other in social media, to the fact that we take the lives of 1.5 million unborn children every year through abortion. It's a show of this lack of respect for other human life. And I think when you create a culture and it's not, again, I’m not saying there's a direct correlation, I’m saying it is something bigger than just let's pass a gun law.

Because we can pass all the gun laws in the world, but if a criminal doesn't obey the laws we already have, I mean, do we honestly can the criminal is going to wake up and say, “Oh a new law. This one I will actually obey.”?

HORST: So, what do we do?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think we try to our culture. We try to become more respectful. We try to begin to understand that we do have responsibility for the results of our society.

OBRADOVICH: Isn't that just throwing up your hands though? I mean, changing the culture is something people have been trying to do since the time of Jesus Christ.

HUCKABEE: Yeah, and there have been several instances in the course of human history, when great spiritual awakenings happen and people becoming aware, they do become aware of their own sinful, evil nature and they recognize, this is not an external fight. This is an internal fight, and it's not a political battle. It's a spiritual battle. Government can't mandate that.

OBRADOVICH: That happens one person at a time though...

HUCKABEE: Well, it does, but I mean it also happens, one person happens, another person happens, the next thing you know, you have a great awakening, that was really the spiritual foundation to the American revolution. If there had not been the great awakening, there probably would not have been an American revolution.

And if you go through history, if there had not been great movements, spiritually, even in England, there would not have been the abolition of slavery under Wilberforce. So there's always usually preceding some great social change, there's usually some spiritual movement in which people recognize they do have responsibility and they are there brother's keeper.

OBRADOVICH: And what about people who don't ascribe to the same spirituality as you? Are they left out of this process?

HUCKABEE: No. Of course not, because everybody's culture is affected. I mean, if you have a less coarse, a less vile and vicious and violent society, doesn't everybody benefit? I mean, you don't have to have everybody to buy in on the cultural norm.

For example, everybody doesn't have to have an iPhone, in order to benefit from the presence of an iPhone. I mean, we all are benefiting by technology. I may decide, you know, I'm not going to have any of that stuff. I refuse to have a T.V., I refuse to have an iPhone or have a computer – fine. Your life is going to be better because everybody else has one.

OBRADOVICH: Except we're all annoyed by everybody being on their phone.

HUCKABEE: Maybe we need a revival more than we need another version of the iPhone, right.