My nephew Rory
Oliver was sworn in this morning as a new police officer for the City of
Chicago. So the usual topics are put aside, so I can say “congratulations,” and
offer my respect and admiration.

Marine veteran,
number one for fitness in his academy class, ridiculously fit – he’s worked for
this goal with focus and intensity, both physical and mental. Loving father of
a handsome son and a daughter on the way this winter — devoted husband with
the caring support of his marvelous wife — parents and brothers and grand-parents and in-laws pulling
for him – he exemplifies all we can hope from the first responders of whom
society asks so much.

So how will we
respond, to Rory and his class of fellow rookies — ready to answer the call,
and to put on the line for us all that they love and value?

Surely it’s time in
our national discourse to act on these core truths:

• That
  there is no place in civilian life for weapons designed only for warfare, for armor-piercing
  bullets or for high-capacity magazines.

• That if
  we can license and regulate and restrict access to the rights to drive a car or
  give a haircut, we can design reasonable safeguards around the constitutional
  right to bear arms. 

• That
  while access to mental health care should be part of our commitment to care for
  those in our midst least able to care for themselves, there is no discernible
  difference between the deeply disturbed in America and those in other countries
  where the ability to wreak homicidal violence is impeded by effective
  limits on gun access.

• That
  the same liability system that puts responsibility on the sellers and
  distributors of other dangerous means of harm and injury can work effectively
  to constrain the supply chain of gun-related death and destruction.

As a matter of priority we must start
there, because suicidal “outliers” will always slip through any cracks, undetected and
unpredictable – no system for deterrence or counsel will stop those crazed
enough to act. But it makes the wrong point, looking at the foreign killer with
a knife, to say, “See, it happens there too.” The right question is, “What do
we learn, of how many were spared, because he could not get a gun?”

Or, for that
matter, the deadly feedstock of ammunition. For a gun without bullets is no
more than household décor, unusable to inflict deadly harm on spouse or sibling or self. As a weapon, an unloaded firearm is only a
club, and an ineffective one at that. So cutting off the means to damage,
especially large clips and belts, must be one of the many fruitful ways to
start rendering more safe our schools and theaters and homes and public places.

I was raised in
rural America, where gun ownership and the safe, respectful use of firearms was
part of every household, including mine. Skill with a gun determined whether
there was meat on the table, and bragging rights accrued to skill on the target
range. I need no persuasion on the diverse scope of our national culture.

But the
accommodation to hunting and sport and the rights contemplated by our nation’s
fathers should not extend to the failure to assure the freedom from wanton
slaughter of our first-graders.   

So we salute you,
Rory Oliver. We are proud of your calling and your ambition to serve. We will
rely on your strength and your dedication. We will pray daily for your safety
and that of your brethren in uniform. And we are dedicated to help you, in the
quest to free our land from its course of senseless mayhem and to make it
instead a place of peace and safety for all. 

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