2012-10-05 AC360 Interview with Castroneves (CNN)

Tonight, Anderson Cooper interviews Senator Juan Castroneves (D-CA) about the potential Registration Act excerpt of transcripts follows

AC: Senator, it's been nearly two weeks since the tragic loss of your family. For those who are saying that your call for Registration was strictly the talk of a grieving husband and father, do you still maintain that this is the correct course of action for America?

JC: Absolutely, Anderson. The loss of my family was a terrible one but it let me empathize with those who have also been negatively impacted by mutants, "superheroes", and those who enact vigilante justice. I still believe that Registration is important for our security as a nation.

AC: Some people have begun to compare you to your former opponent, Governor Charles Sometimes who recently 'upped the ante', as we say, by openly suggesting that those with different abilities should be some how marked visibly so that they can be told apart from the rest of the populous.

JC: I think that's an unfair comparison. I still consider Governor Sometimes to be my opponent in this matter. There is no reason to segregate the population or to give people any more reasons to enact violence against a minority than they already have.

AC: So your feeling is that Registration should be mandatory but not public, then?

JC: Not unless there's reason to make the results known, as in the case of felonies or terrorism, that's correct.

AC: Do we rely on the honour system here? Test all children as they're born? I really want to know how this is going to work, Senator. I think all American is concerned both with the potential loss of freedom and the backlash against our country. Already, there have been strong condemnations of your plan from overseas. Superhuman ID card

Is this the future?

JC: I think that how Registration is enacted must be up to the American people, Anderson. What people in other countries think of us isn't something we can worry about. That's not how we do things here.

AC: And you don't see any reason to be concerned that this step that you propose will take us to the very place you've said you dread, that place where Governor Sometimes might have us go, if what we hear out of his camp is correct -- markings, internment, and possibly worse.

JC: We don't have Registration now, Anderson. That hasn't stopped people like Charles Sometimes from proposing the first drop on what is the true slippery slope, that place of no return. I believe that Registration is the only way to prove that what his solution is ultimately unnecessary.

AC: There you have it, America. Senator Juan Castroneves, the Democrat from California. Still on the side of Registration. Thank you for coming, Senator.

JC: Thanks for having me, Anderson. Good night, America.