Charleston Mayor: Huckabee’s Ideas On Guns ‘So Nutty I Can’t Even Talk’

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. poses in his office as he talks about the Sofa Super Store fire that took nine fire fighters lives and how the city is dealing with the loss, June 9, 2008, in Charleston, S.C.(AP ... Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. poses in his office as he talks about the Sofa Super Store fire that took nine fire fighters lives and how the city is dealing with the loss, June 9, 2008, in Charleston, S.C.(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain) MORE LESS
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The Charleston mayor was left nearly speechless on Wednesday when asked to respond to Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R) comments that the victims in the Charleston shooting may have been able to stop the attack if they had been carrying handguns.

“That is so ridiculous,” Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley told Fox News radio host Alan Colmes. “I mean, I knew these people. I’m looking that their pictures right now in front of me. They weren’t going to be carrying handguns. You want an 87-year old retired lady or you want a minister to be carrying a handgun or a 78-year old retired lady that used to work for the city of Charleston? That is so insane. You want those elderly people carrying handguns? Is that the best we can do in America?”

Huckabee made the comments on conceal carry last week in an online interview with Fox News.

“The one thing that would have at least ameliorated the horrible situation in Charleston would have been that if somebody in that prayer meeting had a conceal carry or there had been either an off duty policeman or an on duty policemen, somebody with the legal authority to carry a firearm and could have stopped the shooter,” Huckabee told Fox News.

Riley was stunned by Huckabee’s remarks about the shooting at a historic black church in Charleston.

“That is so nutty I can’t even talk. It’s crazy. Absolutely crazy,” Riley said on Wednesday. “We want everybody to carry a gun. And then you have everybody carrying a gun and then somebody gets upset and pull it out because they got it handy and they got mad all of a sudden and rather than argue, or take a swing at somebody, they just kill them. It’s crazy, that is insane.”

Listen to the interview on “The Alan Colmes Show” via Fox News:

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