Santorum: Teens Should Take CPR Instead of Holding Protests

Former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum dismissed the usefulness of the student-led March for Our Lives demonstrations for gun control legislation, telling CNN's "State of the Union" saying their time would be better spent by taking CPR classes and preparing for active-shooter scenarios.

"How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that?" Santorum asked.

He also slammed the "Hollywood elites and liberal billionaires who funded" the protests, asking "Is this really all about politics or is it all about keeping our schools safe, because if it is about keeping our schools safe, then we have to have a broader discussion than the discussion that is going on now."

Santorum insisted that calling for new laws is not the answer and instead said students should try to improve their communities.

"They took action to ask someone to pass a law," Santorum said. "They didn't take action to say, 'How do I, as an individual, deal with this problem? How am I going to do something about stopping bullying within my own community? What am I going to do to actually help respond to a shooter?' ... Those are the kind of things where you can take it internally, and say, 'Here's how I'm going to deal with this. Here's how I'm going to help the situation,' instead of going and protesting and saying, 'Oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.'"

Santorum's comments were criticized by Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

"Rick Santorum's words are an insult to the kids of Parkland, my family and to the countless others who have had loved ones taken by gun violence," Lafferty said in a statement. "My mother was killed while protecting her students at Sandy Hook School. For anyone to suggest that the solution to gun violence is for kids to learn CPR is outrageous, and indicative of the NRA's desire to do or say anything except strengthen America's weak gun laws."

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