Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX) is throwing his weight behind gun control, he told Cheddar in an interview Tuesday.
“I respect Second Amendment rights and people’s rights to own a gun, to protect themselves,” he said. “At the same time, I also believe that when we talk about things like semi-automatic weapons [and] bump stocks that make guns automatic, we ought to make sure that those aren’t just out there on the streets.”
His comments came after former Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens penned a [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html) op-ed in favor of a full-blown repeal of the Second Amendment, which he called a “relic of the 18th Century.”
While that view might be extreme, there does appear to be growing demand for gun reform in the country. The sentiment was highlighted at last weekend’s March For Our Lives rallies, which drew in hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Castro said that placed palpable pressure on legislators to act.
“It’s clear that the young people are not going away...They’re going to be very persistent on this issue,” said Castro.
And plenty of activists were out in force to make sure Saturday’s marchers will stay involved through the November elections.
“There’s a group called Move San Antonio that does wonderful work all over town registering people, and they were very active at the rally,” Castro said.
Whether those efforts will turn the historically red Texas blue remains to be seen. Castro says Democrats have a chance, but it will be “an uphill battle.”
“We always rank near the bottom in terms of voter participation,” explained Castro. “Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat [Senator] since the mid-1990s, and it’s an expensive state to run in.
“But we are getting stronger. We’ve got good candidates, and I think we have a chance of breaking through.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-joaquin-castro-d-tx-wants-to-see-eye-to-eye-with-all-constituents).
The inventor of the nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose believes the $570 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson shows that states are taking the crisis "seriously."
On the back of a groundbreaking partnership with data heavyweights Deloitte and Nielsen, cannabis industry intelligence company Headset on Monday announced the launch of its real time analytics tool in the province of Alberta, marking its official debut in the Canadian market. Stakeholders anticipate the data Headset Insights generates ー first in Alberta, and eventually across all of Canada ー will serve as a road map for companies outside of cannabis looking to penetrate the industry, and for Canadian cannabis companies as the market grows more diverse and competitive.
An Oklahoma judge ruled that Johnson & Johnson pay over $570 million in damages — a far cry from the $17 billion requested — for causing the opioid crisis in the Sooner state.
The U.S. president reiterated his position that Russia should be invited back into the coalition of the world's largest economies despite the lingering issue of Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, Trump said that Chinese negotiators had called U.S. officials and requested a new round of talks.
Gravy Analytics, a location-based marketing technology company, analyzed the smartphone data of people who attended the 111 solo Democratic presidential candidate events held in June and July.
The trade war between the U.S. and China escalated throughout the day Friday, culminating with President Trump announcing that the U.S. will significantly hike tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports. The decision came in response to China proclaiming earlier in the day that it would hit $75 billion worth of U.S. goods with new retaliatory tariffs.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said the U.S. central bank was prepared to take action in the event of a global economic downturn. Powell, however, was tightlipped on whether the Fed would initiate another quarter-point interest rate cut as many investors had hoped.
Read Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's prepared remarks from his speech Friday at the Economic Symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
