Governor Northam has set the date of the Special Session for Tuesday, July 9.

We know now is a time of grieving and a time to give support to the 12 families and the community affected by the Virginia Beach tragedy. My family is praying for healing. After a thorough investigation is complete, I look forward to having the discussions that the governor’s administration wants to have in Special Session and I hope he will invite and use all resources available from our social services and mental health networks to come up with more effective ways to address the mental health crisis. As a physician, he knows very well that mental health issues are possibly the most important issues we face as a society. Not only does it affect the family and friends of the ones suffering from the illness, in occurrences like this, it affects innocent lives in the Commonwealth and across the entire nation.

The governor’s call to special session is a rash and reactionary response that is more likely to inflame political tensions than produce substantive public policy. He is focusing on hot-button issues that even the Virginia Beach police chief says would not have stopped this heinous crime from occurring.

Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech in 2007 and 2017’s shooting in Parkland, Florida, Virginia took a very deliberative approach that ultimately ended in substantive and bipartisan reforms to keep our communities safer.

In 2007, Governor Kaine did not call a special session. He formed a commission that worked on substantive issues of public safety and mental health that were adopted in the 2008 session.

In 2017, Speaker Cox formed the House Select Committee on School Safety that produced 24 bipartisan recommendations.

While the governor can call a special session, he cannot specify what the general assembly chooses to consider or how we do our work.

We will use the special session to take steps to address gun violence by putting forward a package of legislation to hold criminals accountable with tougher sentences — including mandatory minimums.

Over two-thirds of domestic violence homicides involve firearms. Just this year, the governor vetoed a bill to require second offense domestic abusers to serve 60 days in jail, giving domestic violence victims the space and safety, they need.

Just this year, the governor refused to sign legislation that would have prevented murderers from getting their life sentences reduced. The governor is not even willing to require the man who committed this horrible crime to spend his life in prison. With his veto pen, he would leave this man’s punishment to the discretion of a judge.

In the 1990s, Richmond experienced a dramatic drop in violent crime because of Project Exile’s tough enforcement of mandatory minimums for those who committed crimes while possessing firearms. This tough approach is proven to work.

Addressing gun violence starts with holding criminals accountable for their actions, not infringing on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.

The governor and others want to make this about guns. But this is not about guns, this is about people, specifically people who commit heinous crimes. We need to get mental health treatment to the people who need it. We need to get our law enforcement officers the resources they need to keep people safe. We need to keep the people who commit these crimes off our streets.

These steps, combined with our ongoing efforts to strengthen the mental and behavioral health system, are the best ways to keep our communities safe from those who commit violent crimes with guns.

The House of Delegates will convene as constitutionally required and work within the rules we adopt and the regular legislative process to consider any matter before us. Our actions will be motivated on sound public policy and the best interests of the Commonwealth, not soundbites and the governor’s rehabilitation tour.

DEL. C. MATTHEW FARISS represents Buckingham in the Virginia House of Delegates. His email address is DelMFariss@house.virginia.gov.