The Constitution is not a suicide pact; amend it – New York Daily News

Do not lie, cheat or steal. Here at the University of Virginia, that is the code of honor we are expected to follow.

Our honor code enables student self-governance, a defining characteristic of the university. It fosters an environment in which students trust each other to act with integrity.

All Americans could commit themselves to such a code. And yet, we as a nation seem to have forgotten our commitment to honor. Every time there is a mass shooting, the leaders involved express that the violence endured is “unimaginable.”

It is extremely difficult to imagine why a student would use a gun to shoot his classmates in cold blood. And yet it is all too imaginable for the parents of D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis Jr., and Devin Chandler. And for their friends, teammates, classmates and teachers, who called them “three beautiful young human beings who had unbelievable futures ahead of them.

But it’s not unimaginable why this keeps happening.

After all, we know that in the United States — with an estimated 400 million guns — people resort to violence at striking rates. The U.S. suffered 90,498 gun deaths in 2020 and 2021, many of which were suicides and homicides. According to Everytown for Gun Safety ratings of state gun laws, states with tighter gun control laws have lower death rates. About half of Americans overall and four out of five Black adults see gun violence as a very big problem in the country today.

For our nation to respond to that recognition, it must prioritize healing — now.

If a community experiences gun violence first-hand, it can help some good come out of a horrific bad. When I spoke with them this month, Sam Fuentes of Parkland, Jackson Mittleman of Newtown and Colin Goddard of Virginia Tech — all survivors of mass shootings — each affirmed that the most valuable pursuit for students in the immediate aftermath of tragedy is togetherness. Find the time and space to be with one another and think about what healing looks like and what resources are needed,” Fuentes advised students at UVA.

As a nation, we should heed her call for love and compassion, too.

“We believe in a government strong enough to use words like ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ — and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities,” former Gov. Mario Cuomo said. These were more than just words for Cuomo. I know that because he was my grandfather, as well as my model for what a public servant is supposed to be.

The Daily News Flash

Weekdays

Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.

The good news is that our noblest aspirations are shared: We would all like to secure bright futures for our young people, rather than grieving their loss.

In D.C. vs. Heller, the Supreme Court affirmed an individual right to be armed but denied that the Second Amendment lets people bring any time of weapon into any corners of American society. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his majority opinion that the Second Amendment is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever.” It is possible to protect gun ownership rights and to limit the firepower that an individual possesses, and it is a balance that can be defined by Democrats and Republicans if they agree to work with one another.

Fighting gun violence is a mission that extends beyond party labels, and we are in agreement that reducing gun deaths will require several approaches. Biden recently signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which will incentivize states to enact red flag laws. About 63% of Americans say they’d like to see Congress do more. They still have a chance to do so. Democrats control the House, Senate and executive for just six more weeks. It is time they called a constitutional convention to reevaluate the Second Amendment.

Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia, recommended that we revisit the Constitution every 19 years. The Constitution, he believed, must be renewed by every generation to prevent it from becoming “an act of force and not of right.” We are approaching the 250th year after the first rendition of our Constitution, and our country has plenty to revisit. As we think about the violence that occurred on the grounds of my university, we should seriously consider Jefferson’s urge to reform.

My grandfather proposed a politics of compassion that we would do well to pursue today. “We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn’t distort or promise to do things that we know we can’t do,” he declared. That constitutes the code of honor we should all be living by — one of integrity, courage and compassion in the face of crisis.

When it comes to ending gun violence, it’s time we strive for something better. It’s time for a constitutional convention in all 50 states.

Cuomo O’Donoghue is a student at the University of Virginia.