Mr. President, it's time to convene a gun summit at Camp David

Thought for the day

Passionate speeches on the floor of the Senate aren’t getting the job done. It’s time for action. Read on.

Don’t panic, but those recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas easily could happen some day at the Huntington Beach Pier or Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach.

Places of worship, movie theaters, grocery stores and the streets of America have become national shooting galleries where the disturbed randomly wound or murder people nearly every day. In the last few years, thousands of innocents from Las Vegas to Chicago to Parkland, Fla., have been shot or killed. 

The easiest thing for President Joe Biden to say is these acts of extreme violence are matters for local law enforcement. The hardest thing for the president to do is solve the problem. Clearly, thoughts and prayers aren’t helping to curb these shootings everywhere in this great nation of ours.

What is the prescription for solving this horrific carnage? I believe the answer lies at Camp David. That is where former world leaders — President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin — forged a peace treaty more than 40 years ago. Despite all the turmoil in the Middle East since, their historic handshake still symbolizes the peaceful relationship between Egypt and Israel.

So why not organize a Camp David 2.0?

I urge President Biden to convene a gun summit at Camp David with the likes of the National Rifle Assn., 2nd Amendment proponents, parents of children gunned down at school and the American Civil Liberties Union in attendance. Make them bunk up and eat together for however long it takes to find common ground on three or four basic, yet meaningful changes to federal law.

If old warriors like Sadat and Begin could find a path to peace at Camp David in 1978, then surely today’s firearm antagonists can find ways to curb gun violence now.

How many more innocent Americans need to be shot or killed before lawmakers finally admit their approach to curbing gun violence isn’t working? Don’t wait another day, Mr. President. People of all ages have become walking targets for the deranged. It’s time to convene a gun summit at Camp David.

-DF