Failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum has retracted his statement regarding students learning CPR instead of rallying for gun control.
“I did misspeak in using the term CPR,” the former senator told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on New Day on Wednesday.
Santorum further explained the positives that can result from campaigning for gun control reform, such as “organizations and people who have actually focused on what we can do ... to actually prevent these types of things.”
He also made a joke about his knowledge of medicine, which clearly is little: “I think Sanjay Gupta's job here at CNN is probably safe as being the medical commentator on things.”
Santorum made his original comments on CNN on Sunday: “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.”
CPR wouldn’t help in a situation such as Parkland’s, where the shooter was attacking the high school with an AR-15. It’s unclear what Santorum was thinking when he made his comments.
His insensitivity prompted a response from Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother died in the Sandy Hook shooting.
“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,” she wrote 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.”
