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?'"

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.