Rep. Castro 'Dumbfounded' by Proposal to Arm Teachers
*By Philly Bubaris*
The failure to enact gun-control legislation after yet another deadly school shooting may be frustrating, but Representative Joaquin Castro said Tuesday he was dumbfounded by alternative proposals to arm teachers to prevent mass shootings.
"I don't think that the answer is to put a gun in every classroom," the Texas Democrat said in an interview with Cheddar. Castro said he consulted his own father, a teacher for 31 years, on the issue. "Like so many other teachers, they didn't sign up to be soldiers or police officers," Castro said. "I just don't see that as a solution."
Castro is one of many members on Congress and the general public upset by the slow ー often non-existent ー pace of gun control legislation after another mass shooting. The latest, at Santa Fe High School southeast of Houston, saw 10 people killed when the suspected shooter, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, went on a rampage with his father's shotgun and .38-caliber pistol.
Pagourtzis is being held without bond, on suicide watch, in the Galveston County Jail. His father told the Wall Street Journal that his son was a "good boy," and the bullying his son received caused him lash out.
Castro said all levels of government and all members of the community must take some action to help prevent future mass shootings.
He said it was parents' responsibility to lock up their weapons, and he said schools deserve increased resources to provide mental-health services. Castro also called on local and state officials to take action to limit the threat of guns in some public places.
"The state legislature has passed open carry and campus carry, which promote the carrying of guns on college campuses," Castro said. "I'm hopeful that the conversation is finally changing in Texas. The people of Texas understand that there's a problem, and something needs to be done."
Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, will be hosting discussions with educators and local law enforcement officials in the coming weeks to figure out the best ways to make schools safer.
Representative Castro said it was encouraging that the governor is recognizing gun violence as a problem, but he was dismayed that more serious action had not been taken sooner. State and local officials need to do more, Castro said.
"You may never get the number of gun deaths to zero, but you can't use it as an excuse to be paralyzed and do nothing."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-joaquin-castro-hopeful-texas-stance-on-gun-control-is-changing).
Going into election day on Tuesday, many of us had an inkling it might not be a great day for Democrats. History tells us the president's party tends to lose congressional seats, governorships and state legislature seats in off-year and midterm elections. Tuesday turned out to be a big wake-up call for democrats. Not only did Terry McAuliffe lose in the Virginia governor's race, Gov. Phil Murphy won re-election by an incredibly slim margin. Both races saw continued Democratic losses in rural areas and a shift of suburban voters back to the GOP. Liz Landers, chief political correspondent at Vice News, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss.
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Amy Howe, co-founder of SCOTUSBlog, joined Cheddar Politics to break the cases down.
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More American tech companies continue to pull their businesses out of China as the Communist Party cracks down on firms — both foreign and domestic. Yahoo and Fortnite have become the latest companies to withdraw from the country, and the withdrawals come just days after Microsoft announced it would take LinkedIn offline. Shehzad Qazi, managing director at China Beige Book International, joined Cheddar to provide some insight into how the crackdowns in China would also impact the tech companies at home in the United States.
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