Rick Santorum’s comment suggesting that school shooting survivors learn CPR came one day after thousands gathered across the country for March for Our Lives rallies. | Darren McCollester/Getty Images Santorum on CPR comments: I misspoke

CNN commentator Rick Santorum said Wednesday that he misspoke last Sunday when he said survivors of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, should have taken CPR classes in response to the attack instead of “looking to someone else to solve their problem.”

“The fact of the matter is I did misspeak in using the term CPR and I think Sanjay Gupta’s job here at CNN is probably safe as being the medical commentator on things,” Santorum, a former Republican senator and presidential candidate, said on CNN’s “New Day.”


Santorum’s initial comment suggesting that school shooting survivors learn CPR came one day after thousands gathered in Washington and in cities across the country for March for Our Lives rallies calling for stricter gun control laws. Those rallies were prompted by last month’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 people.

Santorum was widely rebuked for his CPR comments. Students who lived through the shooting, and even doctors, weighed in publicly, telling the former senator that CPR would not have saved the lives of the victims.

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Santorum said his comment about CPR “obscured the larger point” that past mass shootings have spawned organizations that he said have done significant work in combating school shootings by addressing mental health issues and bullying. Calls for divisive steps to impose stricter gun control laws obscure the work that such organizations do, Santorum said.

“What I’ve seen happen here is avoiding the issues that are really actually unifying,” he continued. “I mean, that's really the most disturbing thing.”

