Sheet/Column Protection

I have a workbook where I want to protect four columns without having to protect the sheet.  I have a VBA command that allows me to protect cells, but as I am very new to VBA, I'm not quite sure of what I'm looking at yet, and I've not been able to modify the code to have it do what I'd like.  Is there something available where I can protect the columns but still be able to sort and/or filter, delete rows, etc?