CPR cannot save someone who is bleeding to death from an AR-15 wound. This, unfortunately, is not something that falls under common sense for everyone, even former Republican senators.

Rick Santorum, while on the live CNN panel “State Of The Union,” declared that there’s a much more effective way for our youth to take action, and it doesn’t involve gun control. Instead, Santorum stated that everyone should just start “taking CPR classes.”

He states that asking “someone else to solve their problems” isn’t devotion to a cause, and isn’t getting us anywhere. Errors laced his scornful remarks, ranging from misrepresented facts to outright immorality.

Following his ignorant comments, physicians and health officials everywhere assured Santorum that CPR would not save victims of a mass shooting. Obviously. Jo Buyske, executive director of the American Board of Surgery, very accurately announced on Twitter that Santorum’s comments were sending a dangerous and wrong message to everyone.

If someone doesn’t have a pulse, there is a slim chance that CPR will save them. The real issue that needs to be addressed is what causes their pulses to stop: the act of a mass shooting. Which, despite whatever uninformed theories Santorum concocts, is not the fault of people unsure of how to “actually respond to a school shooter” or bullying.

Disgustingly enough, it’s not a surprise that another far-right politician is attacking victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and their allies. It’s also not a surprise that Santorum has tried to revoke his original remark because of the backlash he’s faced. There’s been a small effort on his behalf to clear up any “misunderstandings,” although I think we all got his original point quite clearly. Santorum said his original point, that everyone needs to learn CPR, “obscured the larger point.” He claims that what he actually meant to discuss was “the positive things that have come out of these mass shootings.”

Nothing comes from telling people that the best way for them not to get hurt is to avoid getting shot, and that’s essentially what Santorum is saying. His comments are cruel and display a stunning lack of compassion for the gun violence traumas that have shaken our country. Worst of all, he seems genuinely unaware of why his statements are inappropriate.

Experts in medical and social fields can provide evidence that his assertions are false until they go blue in the face, but his ignorance continues.

Ultimately, this means it comes down to us — his audience and constituents — to disregard him, and send the message this his dismissals and belittlement will not be tolerated.