A Recipe For Disaster

By now we’ve all heard the saying “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

While this may not be the dictionary definition of insanity, expecting the same conditions to produce a different outcome is an indication of ignorance, willful or otherwise.

In fact, knowing that the same conditions produce the same results has been foundational to human success. It’s how we learned to cook, farm, and built jet airplanes.

This reliable reproduction of outcomes is also how recipes work. If you don’t change a recipe, it will always deliver the same product, good or bad.

In America it’s apparent we have unfortunately been running a recipe for producing mass shootings. And if we don’t change, we can reasonably expect more of the same.

A number of ideas have been proposed to fix this deadly recipe, including:

• Increased age restrictions or bans on civilian ownership of semi-automatic rifles
• A ban on large-capacity ammunition feeding devices
• Increased mental health funding in public schools
• Temporary gun confiscation from those deemed to be a risk to themselves or others (“red flag” laws)
• Security hardening of public schools
• Closing gaps in gun purchase background checks
• Waiting periods on gun purchases
• Strict firearm storage requirements

None of these ideas are new. All of them have been proposed before. Any one of them will alter the recipe. By themselves, and even collectively, these ideas will likely not completely end mass shootings, but the evidence shows they will reduce their frequency and fatality.

As a country we have been at this point too many times before. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Parkland. Orlando. Virginia Tech. Las Vegas. After each of these incidents, Congress failed to act.

And now we have the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings. Let’s make sure Congressional inaction doesn’t happen again.

At the Benjamin Franklin Party, we believe it is the duty of government to protect its people, and if elected, that’s what we will do.

Let’s fix the recipe.

Yours in republic keeping,
James Carroll
BFPNC Chair