Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Raymond Rapada. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren As ROB WILCOX sat in the Rose Garden for President JOE BIDEN’s unveiling of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention this past fall, he thought about a Washington Post article from mid-2000. In that article, an NRA official crowed about the gun group getting an office in the West Wing if GEORGE W. BUSH won the election that fall. It enraged Wilcox at the time. Now, more than two decades later, Wilcox — a longtime gun safety advocate — was the one starting a new job inside a new White House office, as its deputy director. It’s one of the markers Wilcox points to as a sign of progress on a crisis that can suck a person completely dry of any hope. A month after its launch, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention responded to its first mass shooting, in Lewiston, Maine. And then again, after a shooting in Chicago. They’re just two of the 630 mass killings so far this year. West Wing Playbook called Wilcox to talk about the role he’ll play in tackling this crisis. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Your office’s name includes the word “prevention.” Did you expect responding to mass shootings would play such a big role in your job? Was I surprised? No, absolutely not. My fellow deputy, Greg Jackson, had been working on developing the first-ever, whole-of-government response to gun violence even before that shooting. It’s a system that will continue to be used to support individuals and communities that are suffering. So essentially, it’s a response plan for how federal agencies can jump into action in the event of another shooting? Exactly. We had already worked with the agencies to begin to understand what potential resources they could bring to bear to respond to gun violence. When that tragedy happened in Lewiston, we were just forced into action. That system only gets perfected over time. Do you have specific examples of what this looked like in Lewison? My fellow deputy was on the ground within a couple of days — there was obviously a delay since it was an ongoing [manhunt]. We were able to bring multiple agencies to the scene so that we could support the kids that are going back to school; the Veterans Affairs Department working with the veterans community; directly addressing the needs of the deaf community, which was specifically impacted in this shooting; and working with the Chamber of Commerce on support for small businesses. Many people may not know that gun violence has also impacted your life. [My cousin] was killed in January 2001. The man who killed her was in the middle of a mental health crisis that his brother wanted to take action on. He was a deputy sheriff. He tried some things, but there was no tool at that time to get the guns out of his brother’s hands, even though he wanted to. So that guy walked into the mental health hospital where my cousin was just volunteering for winter break from Haverford College and he shot and killed others. I still today can picture the funeral. I can see where people were sitting. So then you moved to D.C. after that to find work in this space, and later went to law school in New York. You were still working on the issue when Sandy Hook happened. I remember watching President Obama speaking about it. And I could just feel the tears building up, and I’m thinking we’re gonna break through it. Finally, there will be change — and then it doesn’t happen. My wife, she said, this is what you’re meant to do. And so I left that job and moved back to D.C. I worked doing state advocacy in southern legislatures. And then I started doing federal policy work and had the privilege of being one of the advisers to Senator [Chris] Murphy for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. And then, without even expecting it, I got a call to serve our country in this role. Coming from the other side of this world, there’s obviously a lot of push and pull when you’re talking about policymakers and advocates — have you disappointed any former colleagues yet or are they giving you grace? Look, there’s no time for grace. There’s only time for the urgency of action. And I think people see that that’s how Greg and I move and that we are here to put in all the work and they know the reasons why we do it. And so I think we welcome all the ideas. We’re not shy, to say bring us the best ideas. If you talk to Sen. Murphy or Rep. [Lucy] McBath, or even my former colleagues, I really hope they’re not disappointed. I hope they text me first before they tell you. MESSAGE US — Are you ARJUN KRISHNASWAMI, senior policy adviser for clean energy infrastructure? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
| 
