Santorum Retreats From Ridiculed CPR Remarks

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum backpedaled Wednesday from his suggestion that students learn CPR rather than lobby for gun control.

“I did misspeak in using the term `CPR,’” the Republican senator told Chris Cumo on CNN’s “New Day” before quipping: "I think Sanjay Gupta's job here at CNN is probably safe as being the medical commentator on things."

Santorum has come under fire since his CPR suggestion on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, a day after numerous March for Our Lives rallies across the nation calling for stricter gun control. The movement was sparked after last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida left 17 people dead.

"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 Sunday.

Santorum’s remarks were widely ridiculed by physicians who assured him that CPR would be an ineffective treatment for victims of a mass shooting. Heather Sher, a Florida radiologist who examined the gunshot wounds of at least one Parkland shooting victim the day of the shooting, called Santorum’s comments “gobsmackingly uninformed.”

"CPR is not effective with catastrophic bleeding," Sher noted on Twitter.

Santorum, who ascended to the U.S. House and then the Senate from the Pittsburgh area, has joined a growing number of right-wing politicians and commentators who have criticized the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and their allies following the shootings.

File photo of Santorum via Getty Images.