Mike Huckabee is blaming Friday's school shooting in Connecticut on the absence of religion in school curriculums.
Appearing on Fox News, where Huckabee also hosts a show on Saturday nights, the former Arkansas governor argued that the separation of church and state leads to violence in schools.
"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage? Because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability -- that we're not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that."
His comments spurred a slew of negative reactions on Twitter, with one person calling him "an idiot" and another saying he used the shooting as an "opportunity for a sleazy political move."
Quipped another Twitter user: "Mike Huckabee thinks letting God into schools would of prevented this. Not sure Jesus has armor piercing rounds?"
Added another: "Mike Huckabee thinks teaching God in schools fosters non-violence and teaching Allah in madrassas fosters jihad. #fail."
As the Huffington Post points out, it's not the first time Huckabee has expressed this view.
"We don't have a crime problem, a gun problem or even a violence problem. What we have is a sin problem," he said in July. "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."
A total of 26 people -- including 20 children -- were killed Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., by a man law enforcement has identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza. His mother, a teacher at the school, also was found dead at a Newtown residence.
Lanza himself also was kiled, with authorities saying they believe he took his own life.