By ROWLAND REBELE
The killing of five newspaper journalists recently in Maryland caused me to think of the time I, as the co-owner of the Paradise POST, a tri-weekly newspaper in Northern California, had to fire my editor-publisher for cause in 1991, and what I’m certain he then did in retribution.
Fortunately, this man’s anger resulted in non-lethal actions (he is now deceased).
But I had to think of what an angry former newspaper employee could have done.
To recap, shortly after the firing, I, my newspaper partner and key members of my staff, began receiving literally tens of magazines in the mail — publications none of us had ordered.
When I checked with some of the magazines’ circulation departments and they sent me copies of the subscription orders made in our names, it was clear the handwriting on the orders was that of my dismissed former editor-publisher.
That evidence was enough to send me to the Paradise police chief with a complaint. Since no one had been physically hurt, however, the cops took my complaint with what amounted to a patient shrug.
Then things got worse. Suddenly, a number of our newspaper vending machines around town stopped working. Someone (you can guess who) had stuffed their coin slots with Elmer’s Glue, or its iron-solid equivalent, rendering them inoperative.
We started losing money on single-copy sales and my circulation manager was beside himself: every time he’d put out a repaired, or new, replacement machine, it was soon rendered inoperative.
We went to the police again with our suspicions. But neither they, nor members of our own staff, ever caught the perpetrator.
Finally, the DA brought a misdemeanor case against my former employee, who pled no contest. There was no significant punishment — after all, our evidence was mostly circumstantial, but, fortunately, the harassment stopped.
Had my angry former employee chosen to use a gun and shoot a bunch of us in his rage at being let go, the outcome could have been horrible — as it was in Maryland. I still shudder when I read and reflect what happened in a newspaper like mine.
Clearly, it was the presence of a gun, albeit legally owned, that was the crucial element in the Maryland deaths. And it’s the plethora of guns in our country which is why our homicide rate is far, far greater than that of any other advanced nation.
Almost word for word, the Second Amendment reads: “A well-regulated militia being necessary for the common defense, the right to bear arms shall not be abridged.”
To me, that means our citizens have a right to own guns if they’re members of a militia, and the use of their guns is well regulated. And the militia, in this day and age, means the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the various local police forces and sheriff’s deputies.
In my view, you and I may have a right to own a gun if it’s licensed like our cars (read “well-regulated”) or we’re hunters who’ve taken hunter safety classes, or competitive target shooters who keep our guns locked up in the garage or at the local armory, or we’re cops or members of the military, well-trained in their use.
That’s it, as far as I’m concerned.
Guns kill far more people than any other weapon. Our country experiences more gun deaths than any other advanced nation. Our constitution tells us who should own them and that even those owners need to be regulated.
It seems to me we have all the evidence we need to come to our senses in this deadly land of guns.
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Rowland Rebele is a resident of Aptos. His opinions are his own and not necessarily those of the Pajaronian.
