Rick Santorum—the former Pennsylvania senator turned conservative commentator—doesn’t seem to understand how CPR works. Luckily, Parkland students were willing to break it down for him.
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Santorum suggested that instead of asking lawmakers for gun control legislation to prevent mass shootings, student activists train themselves to deal with violent shooters after they’re already in the school building.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum said kids should be learning CPR instead of protesting gun violence https://t.co/SvSDC9Oip3 pic.twitter.com/B5MD4NTYnG
— TIME (@TIME) March 26, 2018
“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 [where] there is a violent shooter, that you can actually respond to that,” Santorum advised.
David Hogg—of the most outspoken students to advocate for gun control following the mass shooting at his school in Parkland, Florida—on Tuesday shut down Santorum’s argument with his sister Lauren.
“The fact that he’s saying CPR when my friends are dying on our floor and nothing’s being done about it is just horrible,” said Lauren Hogg, who reportedly lost four friends in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “I think he’s just using it as a distraction to get the attention away from guns.”
David Hogg added some common medical sense.
“At the end of the day, if you take a bullet from an AR-15 to the head, no amount of CPR is going to save you because you’re dead,” Hogg said.
Doctors on Twitter were also happy to explain to Santorum how effective CPR is in a mass shooting situation (hint: it’s not).
Here are some stats made simple for Rick Santorum:
— Rebecca Bell, MD (@RebeccaBellMD) March 25, 2018
Survival rate of pulseless trauma victims who get CPR at the scene: VERY, VERY LOW
Survival rate of people who don’t get shot in the first place: MUCH, MUCH BETTER
H/T the Slot