On Other Issues
Gun Control
While rates of crime in this country have decreased significantly over the last thirty years, the horrific tragedies throughout the country, most recently in Orlando, prove that there is still much work to be done. Unfortunately, the causes of gun violence in this country are multifaceted, and will not be so easily solved as with a single piece of legislation. Failing schools, lack of healthcare, especially mental health care, toxicity from lead and other heavy metals, the glorification of war and the military in this country, and bigotry and hatred toward others are all contributing factors, along with relatively easy access to gun ownership in this country.
I am in favor of mandatory background checks for gun ownership in this country, and to require the same for private transfers of ownership between civilians. Certain types of assault rifles and other fully-automatic weapons have no business in the hands of civilians, and I want to work with gun control advocates and gun rights groups to determine what other types of weapons should not continue to exist among civilians. However, I maintain that restrictions on the right to own a gun must include provisions for due process. Regardless of one's personal opinions, the Supreme Court has held the right to bear arms as an incorporated right by the provisions of the 14th Amendment, that cannot be legally taken away by the government without due process. While I respect that there are individuals who are suspected of illicit activity and who appear on watch lists, and that there are individuals who should be barred from owning guns, I maintain that the individual in question must retain the right to challenge that designation in court. Terror watch lists and the federal No-Fly list include many people who are no threat to society, and who have been caught up on a technicality, or due to a database error, and do not include necessary safeguards for challenging the government's assertions. Our Constitutional rights must not be subject to being taken away at the government's whim.
Finally, I would move to allow cities and counties, to the maximum extent permitted by the Supreme Court, to pass additional restrictions on gun transfer and the types of weapons allowed within their respective jurisdictions. I recognize that guns carry a very different connotation in parts of rural Arizona than they do in the inner cities of Tucson and Phoenix, and I believe that localities should be allowed to make determinations regarding additional restrictions for their jurisdictions. I do not believe that a one-size-fits-all approach to gun policy is appropriate given the diversity of our population and how guns play into the lives of various people's lives.
Encryption and Digital Privacy
I am a proud supporter of the 4th Amendment, and am strongly opposed to the continuation of the surveillance state. I reject the notion that capturing wide swaths of 'metadata' about people's phone calls, internet usage, and other communications benefits in the aid of stopping crime and terrorism. Rather, we have seen that the enormous amount of data being collected by the NSA contributes to an anaylsis paralysis where there is simply too much data to sort through, limiting the government's ability to find useful information that could help prevent a terrorist attack. Instead, we must push the federal government to respect the 4th Amendment, and to require that the government obtain a warrant before conducting wiretaps or otherwise infringing upon a citizen's privacy rights.
I am also strongly in favor of maintaining strong encryption protocols, and against the government's insistence of creating secret backdoors for government agencies to eavesdrop upon our citizens. We know that there is no such thing as a secret backdoor that only the government can access, and that a weakening of encryption jeopardizes the lives of government operatives abroad, as well as people living in oppressive and authoritarian regimes in other parts of the world. Our Constitutional rights to due process, to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, are not guidelines that we can discard when it is politically convenient. They are rights and explicit limitations on the power of government, enshrined in our Constitution not for times when it is easy to provide those protections, but for the times when we most want to ignore them. As a matter of anti-terrorism and security, we must emphasize the development and support of human intelligence, including working with community leaders, law enforcement, and others, over warrantless and Unconstitutional spying and weakening important encryption standards that protect our privacy. Doing so will also prevent unauthorized access to our critical infrastructure and government systems by hackers and foreign governments, helping to deter and prevent acts of cyberterrorism and espionage against ourselves as well.
Net Neutrality
I am a strong proponent of maintaining and expanding net neutrality provisions and will work with the federal government to make sure that net neutrality is upheld at the national level. Telecommunications firms and internet service providers (ISP's), including some of the most hated companies in America - Comcast, Time Warner, and others - are using their market power to stifle competition and raise prices at the consumer side, and then turn around to content providers and others to push for kickbacks in exchange for faster service speeds. I oppose efforts by the ISP oligopolists to pick winners and losers on the basis of ability to pay, just as I oppose crony capitalism by elected officials. We must have a free and open internet, with a fair and level playing field for internet-based companies to compete, just as we must have government provide a fair and level playing field for businesses across the state.
In addition, I strongly oppose efforts made by ISP's at the state level to stifle municipal broadband, and I will fight to make sure that Arizona does not join with other states who have passed restrictions or bans on municipal broadband. I encourage efforts made by municipalities to develop their own internet services for their citizens. Contrary to the scare-mongering by ISP's, our current system has stifled competition through tacit collusion and non-compete agreements on the basis of geographic separation. Muncipalities must have the right to establish their own services, and open the doors to competition by ultra-high-speed optic-fiber based internet within their respective jurisdictions. Doing so will benefit the consumer by working to lower prices on broadband internet, as well as raise internet speeds; the information economy of the 21st century is one in which internet services are more essential for providing day-to-day services, and which is increasingly a necessity, rather than a luxury as it was in the 1990's.
Religious Freedom
I proudly support the 1st Amendment and the right for each person to practice their religion. But I also believe that the right to practice one's religion implies the right to not to have another's religion imposed upon oneself. I do not support the right of people to use their religious beliefs, no matter how deeply held, to impose their values onto another. I do not believe that religious belief is justification to discriminate against LGBT people, nor do I believe that employers should be able to deny access to contraception on the basis thereof. Our society must be rooted in a foundation of secular law which does not discriminate against any person on the basis of religion or the lack thereof, and which must protect those who would otherwise be discriminated against based on the religious beliefs of an individual or group of individuals.