There are many issues that face our country that I am interested in helping solve. There are three main issues that stand out to me which are gun control, the refugee crisis and political accountability. Researching these issues led me to declare my party affiliation and how I view new issues that show up. Gun control is by far the most important issue to me so it is my number one choice.
Gun control has been a hot button issue so here is my take of it. I grew up in the country so guns were part of our everyday life. We used them to hunt, shoot skeet and defend our property from people and pests. No one ever got hurt and we only saw them for what they are, tools. Pretty much every day there is a shooting somewhere in the country and someone always seems to blame guns. Gun prices have sky rocketed recently because of increased regulation on firearms and most of them are completely unnecessary. I am not saying that any person should be able to buy a gun no questions asked, but the gun control we have at the moment is absurd. With increasing gun control, the only people that get hurt are law abiding citizens. Criminals already bypass the laws so more laws will clearly not stop them.
Reducing gun control also fulfills all three pillars of sustainability. “This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives” (Fact Sheets 1). The first pillar of sustainability is supported by this quote. Every year, law abiding citizens defend themselves from criminals that would otherwise take advantage of them without a firearm. The only people that are not treated fairly are criminals, people with felonies and people with ties to terrorist organizations and for all I care they do not deserve the rights that outstanding citizens have. It is a personal responsibility to learn how to safely operate your firearm so no accidents occur as well.
The second pillar is planet. This is a fairly simple pillar to fulfill. The only way reducing gun control could hurt the planet is increased refining of iron or oil for plastics. With technology advancing we are finding much more efficient ways to extract these from the Earth so our impact on earth becomes less and less. We will eventually find ways to repair our scars on Earth so that it is left unharmed. Besides the resources we took from it.
Lastly, the final pillar of sustainability is profit. With lowering regulations on firearms companies will be able to produce firearms at a lesser cost and, in turn, produce more goods to be sold on the market. This leads to higher revenue which keeps the business in operation. Not only will it keep the business in operation, the business could expand its work force to employ more people with good paying factory jobs that would then be able to add more money into the economy. This gives more money to other business who will then have more money to make business decisions. Lightening regulations on firearms would help out the industry significantly.
My second choice for a related issue was the refugee crisis. We take in a ridiculous amount of refugees every day that then live off of our dime since they fled their country. America is always expected to take the lead on helping people even though these people could be potentially dangerous and many of their cultural views are completely incompatible with ours. I always see men fleeing from their country to seek refuge in ours. Why must we send our good men over there to fight their wars while male citizens from there flee as their country is ripped apart. Many middle eastern nations are able to house these refugees and refuse to do so. Saudi Arabia, for example, is a Muslim country and barely helps with the issue. So, stopping the flow of refugees in our country or at least heavily reforming the system, fulfills the three pillars of sustainability.
The first pillar, which is people, will be covered by stopping the refugees. At first it seems like we are hanging out these people to dry, but many of them are military aged men who are more than capable of fighting for their country. Next, our enemies will obviously abuse the refugee system to find a way to our land. It has already happened in our country and it must stop to protect innocent Americans while we find another place for these refugees to stay. The second pillar is profit. Stopping the refugees coming to our land would save a lot in tax payer dollars that could be put elsewhere like feeding our homeless veterans. The last pillar is planet. Islamic Radicals have to be taken care of before Earth can truly be protected in those areas. War tears apart land but once the enemies are gone there can be peace.
The last issue I chose was political accountability. Politicians have always been extremely dishonest and it must change. By increasing political accountability, we can fulfill all the pillars of sustainability. First off is people. If politicians followed through on their promises our citizens would only profit from cleaner water and other things. Next up is profit. With political accountability we can more closely monitor where our tax dollars go and distribute and save them more effectively. Lastly comes planet. If politicians are held more accountable for their promises, they will follow through with conservation laws and other things that could protect the planet.