Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) suggested on Sunday that students should take CPR classes and prepare for active shooter situations instead of holding protests calling for new gun laws.

"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 said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Santorum said students took action to "ask someone to pass a law."

"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.

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"Those are the kinds of things where you can take it internally and say 'here's how I'm going to deal with it, here's how I'm going to help the situation' instead of going and protesting, saying 'Oh, someone else needs to pass a law to protect me.' "

Santorum added that "phony gun laws" won't solve the issue.

His comments come a day after students took part in marches in cities across the country to protest gun violence and call for change.

The marches came more than a month after a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 people.

Students who survived the shooting have since become vocal advocates for gun control, demanding that lawmakers take action to prevent future shootings.

Several Parkland students spoke Saturday during the "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington, D.C.

Students gave emotional speeches warning lawmakers that they would be voted out if they didn't take action on gun control and honoring those who have died from gun violence.