A former US Senator thinks protesting kids should stop trying to get ‘someone else to solve their problem’

A former US senator says that young people need to stop looking to “someone else” to solve their problems.

Rick Santorum's comments come in the wake of the Parkland shooting where 17 children and adults lost their lives last month. Teenagers led the charge and have been protesting across the country for better gun control regulations.

The former Senator argues that instead of protesting, children should learn CPR and prepare for active shooter situations.

In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, he criticised the marching children.

How about, kids, instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about [sic] maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that.

His comments come a day after protestors descended on Washington and across the country in March For Our Lives events to demand better gun control.

People on Twitter quickly pointed out problems with Santorum's comments.

The host responded by saying that in marching, children were taking action.

However, Santorum clung to the sinking ship that was his argument and insisted:

They 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?'...

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

According to CNN, Everytown for Gun Safety program manager Erica Lafferty, whose mother was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting called his words “an insult to the kids of Parkland, my family and to the countless others who have had loved ones taken away by gun violence”.

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