Rick Santorum: Teens should learn CPR instead of pressing for gun control

Instead of focusing on AP tests and making it to the soccer playoffs, high school students should worry about learning CPR so they can attempt to save the lives of their classmates in the event of a mass shooting, former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum suggested Sunday on CNN's State of the Union.

Responding to the March for Our Lives protests that took place around the world on Saturday, Santorum asked, "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?" The students who are protesting mass shootings are "saying, 'Oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me,'" he continued, rather than asking, "'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?'"

There's your solution, kids — to keep your schools safe, all you have to do is act like a counselor/paramedic/psychologist/teacher all rolled into one. Not surprisingly, Santorum's comments were condemned by Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother was shot and killed during the Sandy Hook shooting. Lafferty called Santorum's words "an insult" to those who have lost loved ones in shootings, and "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." Catherine Garcia

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