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Response to Second Assignment
A toll road also called a toll way or turnpike, is a private or public road for which a fee is weighed for passage. These roads have occasional stops whereby drivers or users have to pay a certain sum of cash to use them. Most of the time, it is a controlled-access highway in the modern-day. Toll roads use a type of road pricing commonly implemented to help recover road maintenance and construction costs. The payment levied on traveling on the toll road is connected to a toll (Romero et al., 2020). This response discusses advantages and disadvantages to the drivers, ecological factors to the use of toll roads instead of free roads, and why an individual would prefer paying a toll to use a free highway.
One of the advantages of toll roads is that it saves time. It is a well-known benefit of toll roads whereby it saves a considerable amount of journey time than other routes. Toll roads are of good quality and relatively smooth, making it a lot quicker to cross country (Romero et al., 2020). They are also advantageous to the driver to save money, offer safety, and aid in pre-planning. A driver doesn’t have to carry cash with him to the toll booths as it can be taken from the bank account registered on the tag account.
The disadvantages of toll roads include the traffic distortions caused by these roads, extra expenses of toll collection, and the interest cost of borrowing funds. They foster political patronage, foster corruption, and discourage required improvements on the rest of the highway roads. Someone might choose to pay a toll than using a free road because technological novelties make sure free traffic flow. They save an individual time, money and promote increased fuel economy; that’s why individuals prefer to use them (Acerete et al., 2019). There are eco-friendly features to the use of toll roads instead of free roads since they are suitable for the environment. It aids in reducing the capacity of harmful emissions in addition to transportation costs.
Reference
Acerete, B., Gasca, M., & Llena, F. (2019). Analysis of environmental financial reporting in the Spanish toll roads sector. 48(4), 430-463.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02102412.2019.1591880
Romero, F., Gomez, J., Paez, A., & Vassallo, J. M. (2020). Toll roads vs. Public transportation: A study on the acceptance of congestion-calming measures in Madrid. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 142, 319-342.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.11.001
Reducing Gun Violence in America
-2787657620Policy Brief
June 24, 2022
00Policy Brief
June 24, 2022
Reducing Gun Violence in America
Audience
The US state governments and bullet manufacturers.
Key messages
There are increased incidences of gun violence in the US, which puts people’s lives and families in danger. However, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant. This policy brief presents means of reducing cases of gun violence.
Policy options
The US state government to restrict the gun purchases within a month to one gun per person.
Bullet manufacturers to put unique serial numbers on all bullets.
Executive Summary
School shootings, mass murders, and other gun-related crimes are becoming more prevalent in the US. Individuals are faced with the impending question of how they can protect themselves and their loved ones from these senseless crimes. This is because efforts by the US government have failed to prevent gun violence. Gun violence is more widespread in the Americas because of the ease with which weapons may be obtained and the lack of control or enforcement of firearms regulations. This policy brief presents ways of reducing cases of gun violence. Gun violence in the US may be reduced by the US state government restricting gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This will help reduce the illegal gun trade. Also, gun violence can be reduced by bullet manufacturers putting unique serial numbers on all bullets, making it easy to identify the perpetrators of gun violence.
Context and Scope of the Problem
Gun violence and mass shootings in the US are on the rise, with more than 30,000 Americans being killed each year (Cornell & Cornell, 2018). The increased rates of gun violence have put people’s lives and families in danger, with Latino and Black populations being the most affected populations. As a result, gun violence has been considered a public health crisis in America (Maa & Darzi, 2018). For all Americans, firearm-related injuries are one of the leading causes of mortality (CDC, 2019). Although gun violence’s widespread, destructive, and inequitable effects have been recognized, the state policy to curb them remains fairly stagnant (Dorris & Murphy, 2021).
Policy Alternatives
Current Policy
In the United States, most gun regulations target the person who will be using the weapon, regulating who may own, buy, or possess a gun. Current Gun control policies also restrict carrying concealed guns and firearms outside the homestead. For instance, the Gun Control Act (1968), which controls the use of firearms at the federal level, mandates that US legal residents and citizens must be at least 18 years old to acquire rifles and ammunition or shotguns. People under the age of 21 are not allowed to purchase other firearms such as handguns. The Act permits the local or state officials to implement high age restrictions, but they cannot lower the federal minimum age. Patients in mental hospitals and fugitives are among those who are prohibited from purchasing weapons. Also forbidden from obtaining weapons are those who have previously served time in jail for felonies or misdemeanors that entail sentences of more than two years. Federal law also bans gun sales to those convicted of illegally having or using drugs such as Marijuana in the previous year. The benefit of the current policy is that the gun control laws may help in reducing gun possession by harmful people. Contrary, broad limits on gun access, such as the restrictions on the purchase or ownership of weapons for those with mental sickness, may not promote the FHIA concept of family diversity because they unjustly stigmatize individuals and families who fall into limited categories (Schroeder et al., 2018).
Proposed Options
One of the proposed options is that the US state governments restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. The benefit of this policy is that it will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence. However, this policy option has a disadvantage since the policy will only prevent law-abiding citizens from purchasing guns.
The second policy option is that policymakers ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. This policy option has the benefit of making it easier to trace perpetrators of gun violence. Once the criminals are identified, this will help minimize gun violence. However, criminals may delete the serial numbers, thus making it difficult to trace them even when bullets are found on the crime scene.
Policy Recommendations
The state governments in the US should ensure that they restrict gun purchases within a month to one gun per person. This is because most illegal gun trade is conducted by middle persons who purchase guns from licensed sellers in bulk and resell them to criminals and juveniles. Therefore, restricting the number of firearms one can purchase in a month will stop the illegal gun trade. Consequently, this will minimize the number of unauthorized gun owners and reduce cases of gun violence.
The state governments in the US should also ensure that bullet manufacturers put unique serial numbers on all bullets. Sellers should then be advised to keep the record of the buyers along with the serial numbers. Since bullets are often recovered at the scene of a crime, the records kept by the sellers will be used to trace the crime perpetrators once bullets are discovered. These criminals will be punished according to the law and will instill fear in other criminals, thus reducing cases of gun violence.
Limitations
The implementation of the proposed policy may be affected by the firearms sellers who do not abide by the law. This is because these sellers might sell more than one firearm to the same person in a month.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019). Fast Facts: Firearm Violence Prevention. Retrieved 24 June 2022, from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html.
Cornell, S., & Cornell, E. (2018). The Second Amendment and firearms regulation: A venerable tradition regulating liberty while securing public safety. American journal of public health, 108(7), 867-868
Dorris, L., & Murphy, A. L. (2021). No more politics over people: The role of helping professions in the prevention of mass shootings and gun-related violence. Traumatology. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/trm0000350Maa, J., & Darzi, A. (2018). Firearm injuries and violence prevention—the potential power of a surgeon general’s report. New England journal of medicine, 379(5), 408-410. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1803295Schroeder, A., Quinn, D., Allen, S., & Anderson, E. (2018). The intersection of mental illness and gun violence: Examining the evidence to guide sound public policy. NCFR Report: Family Focus, 78, F4-F6.
strategic opportunities
2131921-Strategic opportunities
Abell’s business definition framework suggests that a business can be defined using three dimensions namely; the customer groups which is who the business intends to serve through its goods and services. The second dimension is customer needs which refers to the needs of the customers that the business aims to attempt. The third dimension is technology or distinctive competencies which refers to how the business is going to meet the needs of its customers. Within the framework of the competencies of any business and its available technologies, it is the management decisions to strike an optimum between the amount of functions a business wants to fulfil and the costs it is going to incur. This approach puts emphasis on the understanding of the customers as opposed to the particular industry or the products or services the business is offering. On the basis of these three dimensions, Abell’s competitive strategy scheme of classification proposes that a business needs to be defined by the business competitive scope either broad or narrow and the extent of competitive differentiation of the products and services the business is offering (Gomes, 2011).
This model can be used during the definition of the mission, vison and strategy of a business. The definition of a business gives the main reasons as to why the organization exists as well as its strategic scope. It also gives a definition of the business review basis when it comes to the market the business serves, the potential competitors to the business and also the possible options for strategic alliances. By concentrating on the needs of the customers and also maximization of the added value, giving a wide definition of a business can lead to new insights when it comes to potential business areas. This definition can be utilized to define a business scope at all business levels; corporate level, business level and lower organizational levels. It can also be used to communicate any changes when it comes to the definition of a business. It is also useful when it comes to carrying out a systematic analysis of the existing growth opportunities of a business. It can also be used when giving a description or communicating the evolution of markets. This three dimensional business definition model is useful since it puts emphasis that products are just a physical manifestation when it comes to applying of a specific technology in order to satisfy a particular function for a specific customer group. The choice is therefore one of the technologies, functions and customers the business will serve and not the products it is offering. Central to this model is the customer and no the business itself (Gomes, 2011).
Reader’s Digest Association is the publisher of Reader’s digest a magazine in circulation all over the world. The company has the database that can enable it to sell various products like CDs, videos, condensed books. Abell’s model can be used to explain other products the company could send down its distribution channel which would be amenable to mail order that are appealing to its subscribers. Using the model we can say that the company will first examine its customer base, and then find out what else they can introduce in their distribution channel in order to satisfy their needs. Finally, they will look at if they have the available technology to produce the new products. Knowing their target group of customers is readers, they could introduce videos and music that can accompany the books they read. The company can introduce music and videos that go with particular books so that the customers can understand the books and enjoy them more. The company can expand its technology in order to produce the videos and music.
References
Gomes, S. (2011). Strategic Management. Retrived October 1, 2014 from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cpaireland.ie%2Fdocs%2Fdefault-source%2FStudents%2FStudy-Support%2FStrategy-Leadership%2Fstrategic-options—approaches-to-sustainable-competitive-advantage.pdf%3Fsfvrsn%3D0&ei=p8crVLbaK6HC7gamo4CwCw&usg=AFQjCNF2G72Nw9_K80LZkVn7aNet3WKaqw&sig2=vH8nJWz0TXL-p9nzjvJm7AMy Strategic Plan. (n.d.). Vision Statements. Retrieved from http://mystrategicplan.com/resources/vision-statements/#Criteria.