Students should “take CPR classes” instead of demonstrating, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said one day after throngs of young people swarmed Washington and other cities across the country in the name of gun law reform.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday morning, the former Pennsylvania lawmaker pushed back against organizers of Saturday's March for Our Lives.

“How about kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or maybe try to deal with situations where there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that,” he said.

Santorum added that students should look at how they can individually respond to the issue of gun violence and stop, for example, bullying in their schools or communities.

“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?,'” he said.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Hughes, a Democrat who represents portions of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, tweeted that Santorum's comments were “Maddening! Absurd! Ridiculous!”

Philadelphia’s March for Our Lives drew thousands of people to Old City Saturday. Across the nation, hundreds of thousands more demonstrated. March for Our Lives organizers said more than 850,000 people participated in the national rally in D.C..