Page 56 of 107 Days

A storm was heading toward Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due for a meeting at my ceremonial office, and, as leader of the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, I was scheduled to speak at the signing of an executive order creating a task force to combat ghost guns and improve safety drills in schools.

In my speech to the summit, I’d declared, “The foundation of European security is under direct threat in Ukraine.” I called out Putin’s “playbook”—his spreading of lies, disinformation, propaganda.

After that speech, in a private room across the street from the conference venue, I sat down with Zelenskyy and laid out our intelligence, which differed from what the Ukrainians had gathered.

I had to tell him bluntly that his numbers were wrong and invasion was imminent.

Zelenskyy still believed that Putin was merely flexing and wouldn’t mount a full-scale war against his country.

It was my job to get him to face the urgent reality.

“What would you have me do?” he finally asked.

“Get your people ready,” I replied. And he did.

Few of us know who we will be in a time of crisis until we are tested.

I often think of the window cleaner, trapped in a stalled elevator the day the planes hit the World Trade Center.

Refusing to give up, he used the sharp edge of his squeegee to gouge through the wall and led everyone in that elevator to safety.

Did he know when he set out for work on that ordinary day that he would be the hero who saved lives?

Zelenskyy, who had been a comedian, has proved himself an exceptional wartime leader.

He has stepped up to a task he never expected, inspiring his people with his personal courage, drawing support from the whole world, defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of his country against the might of Russia.

Now, after almost a thousand days of conflict, we met in the midst of the bloodshed and destruction that his people were suffering to discuss how the United States could best continue to support Ukraine’s resistance. Our conversation was candid; we had developed a relationship of trust.

It was the kind of day that reminded me why I was a public servant. What I said and did that day would have an impact on people affected by a natural disaster, a war, and the ongoing scourge of gun violence.

The executive order came in the wake of another dispiriting Supreme Court decision, striking down the federal ban on bump stocks.

Sometimes I felt that improving our gun laws was a frustrating game of Whac-A-Mole.

No sooner did we pass a law than the gun lobby filed suit and the conservative court overturned it.

Meanwhile, the lawless found ways to get around the scant regulations still in place.

And so we live with the fact that one in five Americans has a relative who was killed by gun violence.

We gathered in the East Room of the White House. Sari Kaufman, who survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, introduced me. Many other survivors and activists filled the room.

The new executive order was timed to mark the first anniversary of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

It was aimed at deadly machine gun conversion devices, or MCDs, and 3D-printed ghost guns.

Even though these devices are illegal, police had seen a staggering 570 percent rise in MCD seizures.

The devices are cheap, easy to make, and deadly.

One type, a “Glock switch,” converts the pistol into a weapon capable of firing up to 1,200 rounds a minute.

The new task force would come up with better ways to tackle the manufacture and distribution of these devices.

As Joe signed the executive order, he turned and handed me the pen, saying, “Keep it going, boss.”